Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) vs Inkling Small
Which is better for the money: Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) 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 (Xhigh) scores 18.5 points higher (44.2 vs 25.7) but costs 9.3× as much to run the benchmark ($2242 vs $241; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) when you need intelligence above 25.7, and Inkling Small when 25.7 is enough.
| Metric | Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) | Inkling Small | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 44.2 | 25.7 | −41.9% Inkling Small is 41.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,241.91 | $240.85 | −89.3% Inkling Small is 89.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 37.48s | 12.95s | −65.4% Inkling Small is 65.4% 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 (Xhigh): 41.9% less intelligence, 89.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 65.4% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
- Inkling Small is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Grok 4.6 (Xhigh)Inkling SmallToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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