Inkling Small vs Kimi K3.1 Pro
Which is better for the money: Inkling Small by Thinking Machines or Kimi K3.1 Pro by Kimi? 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
Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 29.4 points higher (55.1 vs 25.7) but costs 13× as much to run the benchmark ($3117 vs $241; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K3.1 Pro when you need intelligence above 25.7, and Inkling Small when 25.7 is enough.
| Metric | Inkling Small | Kimi K3.1 Pro | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 25.7 | 55.1 | +114.4% Kimi K3.1 Pro is 2.1× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $240.85 | $3,117.31 | +1194.3% Kimi K3.1 Pro is 13× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.68s | 44.78s | +253.2% Kimi K3.1 Pro is 253.2% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech | Text, Image |
Kimi K3.1 Pro vs Inkling Small: 114.4% more intelligence, 1194.3% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 253.2% 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 K3.1 Pro is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
Inkling SmallKimi K3.1 ProToday'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-k3-1-pro · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/inkling-small/kimi-k3-1-pro?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill