Inkling Small vs Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Inkling Small by Thinking Machines or Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) by Kimi? 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
Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) scores 1.3 points higher (27.0 vs 25.7) but costs 6.3× as much to run the benchmark ($1528 vs $241; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) when you need intelligence above 25.7, and Inkling Small when 25.7 is enough.
| Metric | Inkling Small | Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 25.7 | 27.0 | +5.1% Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is 5.1% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $240.85 | $1,528.20 | +534.5% Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is 6.3× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.67s | 65.20s | +414.6% Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is 414.6% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $0.95 / $4.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech | Text, Image, Video |
Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) vs Inkling Small: 5.1% more intelligence, 534.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 414.6% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Inkling Small is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
- Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Inkling SmallKimi K2.6 (Reasoning)Today'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/inkling-small/kimi-k2-6 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/inkling-small/kimi-k2-6?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill