Inkling Small vs MiniMax-M3
Which is better for the money: Inkling Small by Thinking Machines or MiniMax-M3 by MiniMax? 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
MiniMax-M3 scores 3.5 points higher (29.2 vs 25.7) but costs 2.2× as much to run the benchmark ($538 vs $241; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick MiniMax-M3 when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Inkling Small.
| Metric | Inkling Small | MiniMax-M3 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 25.7 | 29.2 | +13.6% MiniMax-M3 is 13.6% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $240.85 | $537.98 | +123.4% MiniMax-M3 is 2.2× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.67s | 26.74s | +111.0% MiniMax-M3 is 111.0% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $0.30 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech | Text, Image, Video |
MiniMax-M3 vs Inkling Small: 13.6% more intelligence, 123.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 111.0% 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.
- MiniMax-M3 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
Inkling SmallMiniMax-M3Today'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/minimax-m3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/inkling-small/minimax-m3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill