Gemini 4 Carbon (High) vs Inkling (Xhigh)
Which is better for the money: Gemini 4 Carbon (High) by Google or Inkling (Xhigh) by Thinking Machines? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-29.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 4 Carbon (High) scores 46.9 points higher (59.4 vs 12.5) but costs 6.7× as much to run the benchmark ($8240 vs $1237; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 4 Carbon (High) when you need intelligence above 12.5, and Inkling (Xhigh) when 12.5 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 4 Carbon (High) | Inkling (Xhigh) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 59.4 | 12.5 | −79.0% Inkling (Xhigh) is 79.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $8,239.69 | $1,236.66 | −85.0% Inkling (Xhigh) is 85.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 102.49s | 14.03s | −86.3% Inkling (Xhigh) is 86.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $1.00 / $4.05 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image, Speech |
Inkling (Xhigh) vs Gemini 4 Carbon (High): 79.0% less intelligence, 85.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 86.3% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 4 Carbon (High) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Inkling (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 54.50 for $1124.
Gemini 4 Carbon (High)Inkling (Xhigh)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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