Inkling Small vs Beam 1.0
Which is better for the money: Inkling Small by Thinking Machines or Beam 1.0 by Reflection? 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
Beam 1.0 scores 4.6 points higher (30.3 vs 25.7) but costs 1.3× as much to run the benchmark ($319 vs $241; both mid-range class). Pick Beam 1.0 when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Inkling Small.
| Metric | Inkling Small | Beam 1.0 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 25.7 | 30.3 | +17.9% Beam 1.0 is 17.9% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $240.85 | $318.73 | +32.3% Beam 1.0 is 32.3% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.67s | 8.02s | −36.7% Beam 1.0 is 36.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $0.40 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech | Text |
Beam 1.0 vs Inkling Small: 17.9% more intelligence, 32.3% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 36.7% 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.
- Beam 1.0 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Inkling SmallBeam 1.0Today'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/reflection-beam · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/inkling-small/reflection-beam?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill