Model comparison

Gemini 3.5 Flash vs Inkling-Small

Gemini 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.2 to 46.5 on the Noometry Index. Inkling-Small costs 5.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.5 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 32 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.5 Flash Google

54.2

Rank #32 Confirmed

Inkling-Small Thinking Machines Lab

46.5

Rank #63 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 32 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.5 Flash scores higher in 9 categories and Inkling-Small in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.5 Flash leads 62.8 to 38.6.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is SimpleQA Verified: 66.2% for Gemini 3.5 Flash and 19.1% for Inkling-Small.
  • Inkling-Small is cheaper at $0.45 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1.50 / $9 for Gemini 3.5 Flash.
  • Gemini 3.5 Flash accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 524K.
  • Inkling-Small has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 3.5 Flash and Inkling-Small specifications
Gemini 3.5 FlashInkling-Small
ProviderGoogleThinking Machines Lab
Noometry Index54.246.5
Released2026-05-192026-07-15
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M524K
Max output66K1.05M
Input $ / M tokens$1.50$0.45
Output $ / M tokens$9$1.20
Results tracked5433

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 49.4 (#49), Inkling-Small: 43.6 (#85)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashInkling-Small
LMArena WebDev14991409
SciCode53.1%48.7%
LMArena Coding14921451
SWE-bench Verified79.3%—
DeepSWE37.4%—
WeirdML62.6%—
ALE-Bench911.02—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 24.7 (#114), Inkling-Small: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashInkling-Small
APEX-Agents27.5%—
GBAEval6.7%—
GDP.pdf14%—
Vending-Bench 25,396—

Reasoning Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 62.8 (#18), Inkling-Small: 38.6 (#63)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashInkling-Small
ARC-AGI-272.1%40.1%
ARC-AGI-192.5%84%
CritPt13.1%8.3%
Chess Puzzles50%18%
LMArena Hard Prompts14881423
Mystery Game Puzzles32%6%
Epoch Capabilities Index154.46150.15
SimpleBench76.7%—
NYT Connections (extended)92.6%—
EnigmaEval25.4%—
EBR-Bench4.8%—
DTBench94.7%—
LMCA47.1%—
Surface Evolver Bench58.1%—
ForecastBench59—

Math Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 60.7 (#36), Inkling-Small: 45.1 (#77)

Knowledge Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 66.3 (#11), Inkling-Small: 48.2 (#77)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashInkling-Small
GPQA Diamond92.8%88.5%
SimpleQA Verified66.2%19.1%
LMArena Expert14951442

Multimodal Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 45.7 (#15), Inkling-Small: 39.1 (#62)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashInkling-Small
LMArena Vision13101235
Blueprint-Bench 233.6%—
LMArena Document1463—

Multilingual Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 57.0 (#13), Inkling-Small: 51.7 (#104)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashInkling-Small
LMArena Non-English14761402
LMArena Chinese15261465
LMArena French14901436
LMArena German14921405
LMArena Japanese14861405
LMArena Korean14511363
LMArena Russian14931391
LMArena Spanish14801428

Instruction Following Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 77.0 (#30), Inkling-Small: 73.8 (#114)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashInkling-Small
LMArena Instruction Following14671399

Long Context Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 45.4 (#38), Inkling-Small: 42.7 (#118)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashInkling-Small
LMArena Longer Query14821401

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 65.5 (#47), Inkling-Small: 59.6 (#107)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashInkling-Small
LMArena Text14821414
LMArena Creative Writing14701331
LMArena Multi-Turn14811418
EQ-Bench Creative Writing—1491
EQ-Bench 41087—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash better than Inkling-Small?

Gemini 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.2 to 46.5 on the Noometry Index. Inkling-Small costs 5.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.5 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash or Inkling-Small?

Inkling-Small is cheaper. It lists at $0.45 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.5 Flash lists at $1.50 and $9.

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash or Inkling-Small better for coding?

Gemini 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 49.4 versus 43.6 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.5 Flash does, with 1.05M tokens against 524K.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.5 Flash and Inkling-Small share?

32 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.5 Flash has 54 scored results on Noometry and Inkling-Small has 33.

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