Inkling Small vs Ministral 3 3B
Which is better for the money: Inkling Small by Thinking Machines or Ministral 3 3B by Mistral? 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
Inkling Small scores 20.9 points higher (25.7 vs 4.8) but costs 20× as much to run the benchmark ($241 vs $12.2; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Inkling Small when you need intelligence above 4.8, and Ministral 3 3B when 4.8 is enough.
| Metric | Inkling Small | Ministral 3 3B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 25.7 | 4.8 | −81.3% Ministral 3 3B is 81.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $240.85 | $12.23 | −94.9% Ministral 3 3B is 94.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.95s | 3.01s | −76.8% Ministral 3 3B is 76.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $0.10 / $0.10 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech | Text, Image |
Ministral 3 3B vs Inkling Small: 81.3% less intelligence, 94.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 76.8% faster 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.
- Ministral 3 3B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
Inkling SmallMinistral 3 3BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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