Inkling Small vs Mistral Large 4 (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Inkling Small by Thinking Machines or Mistral Large 4 (Medium) by Mistral? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-31.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Mistral Large 4 (Medium) scores 10.2 points higher (23.1 vs 12.9) but costs 4.2× as much to run the benchmark ($936 vs $225; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Mistral Large 4 (Medium) when you need intelligence above 12.9, and Inkling Small when 12.9 is enough.
| Metric | Inkling Small | Mistral Large 4 (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 12.9 | 23.1 | +79.1% Mistral Large 4 (Medi… is 79.1% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $224.77 | $936.36 | +316.6% Mistral Large 4 (Medi… is 4.2× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.80s | Not reported | — not comparable |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $0.70 / $2.10 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech | Text, Image |
Mistral Large 4 (Medium) vs Inkling Small: 79.1% more intelligence, 316.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and end-to-end time not fully reported.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Inkling Small is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Terra (Medium) scores 38.10 for $190.
- Mistral Large 4 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 52.30 for $718.
Inkling SmallMistral Large 4 (Medium)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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