Inkling Small vs Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Inkling Small by Thinking Machines or Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) by Mistral? 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
Inkling Small scores 14.4 points higher (25.7 vs 11.3) but costs 5.7× as much to run the benchmark ($241 vs $42.5; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Inkling Small when you need intelligence above 11.3, and Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) when 11.3 is enough.
| Metric | Inkling Small | Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 25.7 | 11.3 | −56.0% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 56.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $240.85 | $42.50 | −82.4% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 82.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.67s | 14.50s | +14.4% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 14.4% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $0.15 / $0.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech | Text, Image |
Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) vs Inkling Small: 56.0% less intelligence, 82.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 14.4% 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.
- Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Medium) scores 29.90 for $31.2.
Inkling SmallMistral Small 4 (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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