Inkling Small vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL
Which is better for the money: Inkling Small by Thinking Machines or Nemotron 3.5 Super VL by NVIDIA? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL scores 0.8 points higher (26.5 vs 25.7) but costs 1.2× as much to run the benchmark ($286 vs $241; both mid-range class). Pick Nemotron 3.5 Super VL when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Inkling Small.
| Metric | Inkling Small | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 25.7 | 26.5 | +3.1% Nemotron 3.5 Super VL is 3.1% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $240.85 | $286.07 | +18.8% Nemotron 3.5 Super VL is 18.8% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.95s | 6.26s | −51.7% Nemotron 3.5 Super VL is 51.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $0.23 / $0.57 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech | Text, Image |
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs Inkling Small: 3.1% more intelligence, 18.8% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 51.7% 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.
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Inkling SmallNemotron 3.5 Super VLToday'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/nemotron-3-5-super-vl · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/inkling-small/nemotron-3-5-super-vl?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill