Inkling Small vs Mistral Large 4 Preview
Which is better for the money: Inkling Small by Thinking Machines or Mistral Large 4 Preview by Mistral? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-29.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Mistral Large 4 Preview scores 12.4 points higher (25.3 vs 12.9) but costs 13× as much to run the benchmark ($2923 vs $225; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Mistral Large 4 Preview when you need intelligence above 12.9, and Inkling Small when 12.9 is enough.
| Metric | Inkling Small | Mistral Large 4 Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 12.9 | 25.3 | +96.1% Mistral Large 4 Previ… is 96.1% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $224.77 | $2,923.39 | +1200.6% Mistral Large 4 Previ… is 13× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 13.97s | 25.54s | +82.8% Mistral Large 4 Previ… is 82.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $0.70 / $2.10 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech | Text, Image |
Mistral Large 4 Preview vs Inkling Small: 96.1% more intelligence, 1200.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 82.8% slower end-to-end.
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 Preview is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 54.50 for $1124.
Inkling SmallMistral Large 4 PreviewToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/inkling-small/mistral-large-4-preview · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/inkling-small/mistral-large-4-preview?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill