Inkling Small
By Thinking Machines · released 2026-07-30 (2 weeks) · snapshot 2026-08-19
- Intelligence index
- 41.20
- Cost to run the AA index
- $193
- Price per 1M tokens (in / out)
- $0.30 / $1.20
- End-to-end time
- 39.3s
Is Inkling Small on the Pareto frontier, and what beats it?
Off the frontier
No. GPT-5.6 Luna (max) is at least as smart for the same money or less.
Next step up: Gemini 3.7 Flash (medium), smarter but dearer.
| # | Model | Creator | Intelligence | Total cost | E2E total | Open | Released | Frontier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Inkling Small | Thinking Machines | 41.20 | $193 | 39.3s | 2026-07-30 | ||
| 2 | GPT-5.6 Luna (max) | OpenAI | 52.30 | $172 | 162.6s | 2026-07-09 | Frontier | |
| 3 | Gemini 3.7 Flash (medium) | 53.40 | $278 | 6.21s | 2026-08-13 | Frontier |
Open in the picker Daily check URL: 200 on the frontier, 409 once beaten
Inkling Small today
Intelligence: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index. Cost: total cost to run that benchmark, so reasoning tokens count. API id: inkling-small.
Compare head to head
Suggested: what beats it, its effort levels, and frontier models near its price.
What the Inkling Small release did to the frontier on 2026-07-30
None of its 1 effort levels reached the frontier at launch.
Closest miss: Inkling Small, 5.8 points below GPT-5.6 Luna (high) at 3.5× the cost.
Should you use Inkling Small?
Should you use Inkling Small?
Only when it fits your setup: GPT-5.6 Luna (max) is at least as smart for the same money or less, so Inkling Small is off the value frontier today.
What is better and cheaper than Inkling Small?
GPT-5.6 Luna (max) — at least as smart for the same money or less.
How much does Inkling Small cost?
$0.30/$1.20 in/out per 1M tokens, and $193 to run the full Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, the honest all-in number for reasoning models.
Is Inkling Small on the Pareto frontier?
No: GPT-5.6 Luna (max) beats it on intelligence, cost, or both.
Frontier membership by axis pair
Other axis pairs where Inkling Small is Pareto-optimal.
| Y axis | X axis | On the frontier |
|---|---|---|
| AA intelligence index | AA total cost to run (USD) | |
| AA intelligence index | End-to-end total seconds | |
| AA intelligence index | Output speed tokens/sec |
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/models/inkling-small · Markdown: /api/v1/models/inkling-small?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill