Inkling Small vs Kimi K3 (Max)
Which is better for the money: Inkling Small by Thinking Machines or Kimi K3 (Max) 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 K3 (Max) scores 17.9 points higher (43.6 vs 25.7) but costs 15× as much to run the benchmark ($3658 vs $241; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K3 (Max) when you need intelligence above 25.7, and Inkling Small when 25.7 is enough.
| Metric | Inkling Small | Kimi K3 (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 25.7 | 43.6 | +69.6% Kimi K3 (Max) is 69.6% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $240.85 | $3,658.07 | +1418.8% Kimi K3 (Max) is 15× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.67s | 63.08s | +397.9% Kimi K3 (Max) is 397.9% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $3.00 / $15.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech | Text, Image |
Kimi K3 (Max) vs Inkling Small: 69.6% more intelligence, 1418.8% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 397.9% 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 K3 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
Inkling SmallKimi K3 (Max)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-k3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/inkling-small/kimi-k3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill