AllocateClaude Sonnet 5 vs Inkling FP4
On provider list prices, Inkling FP4 costs $1 per million input tokens against $3 for Claude Sonnet 5: 3.0x apart. Output is $4.05 against $15 (3.7x).
Claude Sonnet 5
Inkling FP4Specifications and provider list prices from the Allocate catalog, checked 2026-07-21.
What the numbers say
Take 1,000,000 requests a month at 1,200 input and 350 output tokens each. That workload costs $2,618 a month on Inkling FP4 and $8,850 on Claude Sonnet 5 at list: a gap of $6,233, or 3.4x.
Claude Sonnet 5 reads 1M tokens per request against 512K for Inkling FP4, 1.9x the window. That decides which one can take whole documents without splitting them.
Choose Claude Sonnet 5 for
- Judgment calls with policy context
- Customer-facing writing
- Review and escalation flows
Choose Inkling FP4 for
- The lower list price ($1 in / $4.05 out per M tokens)
- Open weights you can fine-tune and own
- Fine-tuning under a permissive license (Apache 2.0)
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5 or Inkling FP4?
Inkling FP4, on this workload shape. At list prices it is $1/$4.05 per million tokens in and out against $3/$15 for Claude Sonnet 5. Billed on Allocate: $1.07/$4.33 against $3.21/$16.05.
Which has the bigger context window?
Claude Sonnet 5: 1,000,000 tokens (1M) against 524,288 (512K) for Inkling FP4.
Can I fine-tune Claude Sonnet 5 or Inkling FP4?
Inkling FP4 publishes open weights (Apache 2.0) and can be fine-tuned on your own data. Claude Sonnet 5 is a closed model served over API; its weights are not available.
Related comparisons
Run the numbers on your workload
Or don’t choose. On Allocate a route name is the contract: point yours at one model today, swap to the other tomorrow, and compare them on your live traffic with per-token metering.