DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) vs Inkling Small
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) by DeepSeek or Inkling Small by Thinking Machines? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Clear winner
Verdict
Pick Inkling Small
Inkling Small vs DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25): 125.4% more intelligence, 47.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 37.2% faster end-to-end.
| Metric | DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) | Inkling Small | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.4 | 25.7 | +125.4% Inkling Small is 2.3× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $460.74 | $240.85 | −47.7% Inkling Small is 47.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 20.19s | 12.68s | −37.2% Inkling Small is 37.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $4.00 | $0.30 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Speech |
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
- Inkling Small is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25)Inkling SmallToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-r1-0120/inkling-small · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-r1-0120/inkling-small?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill