Inkling Small vs Kimi K3 (Low)
Which is better for the money: Inkling Small by Thinking Machines or Kimi K3 (Low) 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 (Low) scores 4.4 points higher (30.1 vs 25.7) but costs 4.9× as much to run the benchmark ($1190 vs $241; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K3 (Low) when you need intelligence above 25.7, and Inkling Small when 25.7 is enough.
| Metric | Inkling Small | Kimi K3 (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 25.7 | 30.1 | +17.1% Kimi K3 (Low) is 17.1% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $240.85 | $1,190.42 | +394.3% Kimi K3 (Low) is 4.9× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.67s | 66.33s | +423.5% Kimi K3 (Low) is 423.5% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $3.00 / $15.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech | Text, Image |
Kimi K3 (Low) vs Inkling Small: 17.1% more intelligence, 394.3% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 423.5% 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 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Inkling SmallKimi K3 (Low)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/inkling-small/kimi-k3-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/inkling-small/kimi-k3-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill