DeepSeek V3 0324 vs Inkling Small
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V3 0324 by DeepSeek or Inkling Small by Thinking Machines? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Inkling Small scores 16.0 points higher (25.7 vs 9.7) but costs 12× as much to run the benchmark ($241 vs $19.9; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Inkling Small when you need intelligence above 9.7, and DeepSeek V3 0324 when 9.7 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Inkling Small | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 9.7 | 25.7 | +164.9% Inkling Small is 2.6× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $19.87 | $240.85 | +1112.1% Inkling Small is 12× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 4.96s | 12.67s | +155.4% Inkling Small is 155.4% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.24 / $0.90 | $0.30 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Speech |
Inkling Small vs DeepSeek V3 0324: 164.9% more intelligence, 1112.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 155.4% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V3 0324 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- Inkling Small is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
DeepSeek V3 0324Inkling SmallToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v3-0324/inkling-small · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v3-0324/inkling-small?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill