Grok 4.6 (Low) vs Inkling Small
Which is better for the money: Grok 4.6 (Low) by SpaceXAI or Inkling Small by Thinking Machines? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Grok 4.6 (Low) scores 9.4 points higher (35.1 vs 25.7) but costs 2.5× as much to run the benchmark ($614 vs $241; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick Grok 4.6 (Low) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Inkling Small.
| Metric | Grok 4.6 (Low) | Inkling Small | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 35.1 | 25.7 | −26.8% Inkling Small is 26.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $613.92 | $240.85 | −60.8% Inkling Small is 60.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 13.64s | 12.80s | −6.2% Inkling Small is 6.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $6.00 | $0.30 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Speech |
Inkling Small vs Grok 4.6 (Low): 26.8% less intelligence, 60.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 6.2% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Grok 4.6 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
- Inkling Small is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Grok 4.6 (Low)Inkling 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/grok-4-6-low/inkling-small · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/grok-4-6-low/inkling-small?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill