Model comparison

Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Inkling-Small

Gemini 3 Flash Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 52.3 to 46.5 on the Noometry Index. Inkling-Small costs 1.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3 Flash Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 30 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3 Flash Preview Google

52.3

Rank #40 Confirmed

Inkling-Small Thinking Machines Lab

46.5

Rank #63 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 30 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3 Flash Preview scores higher in 9 categories and Inkling-Small in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in knowledge, where Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads 58.8 to 48.2.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is SimpleQA Verified: 66.8% for Gemini 3 Flash Preview and 19.1% for Inkling-Small.
  • Inkling-Small is cheaper at $0.45 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $3 for Gemini 3 Flash Preview.
  • Gemini 3 Flash Preview accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 524K.
  • Inkling-Small has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 3 Flash Preview and Inkling-Small specifications
Gemini 3 Flash PreviewInkling-Small
ProviderGoogleThinking Machines Lab
Noometry Index52.346.5
Released2025-12-172026-07-15
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M524K
Max output66K1.05M
Input $ / M tokens$0.50$0.45
Output $ / M tokens$3$1.20
Results tracked5933

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 50.9 (#42), Inkling-Small: 43.6 (#85)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewInkling-Small
LMArena WebDev14391409
LMArena Coding14601451
SWE-bench Verified75.4%—
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)75.8%—
SWE-bench Multilingual72.7%—
SciCode—48.7%
GSO9.8%—
WeirdML61.6%—
ALE-Bench1,367—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 38.7 (#29), Inkling-Small: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewInkling-Small
Terminal-Bench64.3%—
τ²-bench Airline82.5%—
τ²-bench Banking27.3%—
τ²-bench Retail76.8%—
τ²-bench Telecom91.2%—
DeepResearch Bench49.8%—
BALROG48.1%—
GDP.pdf10%—
LMArena Search1198—
Vending-Bench 23,635—

Reasoning Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 49.2 (#37), Inkling-Small: 38.6 (#63)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewInkling-Small
ARC-AGI-233.6%40.1%
ARC-AGI-184.7%84%
Chess Puzzles40%18%
LMArena Hard Prompts14651423
Mystery Game Puzzles26%6%
Epoch Capabilities Index151.8150.15
SimpleBench61.1%—
NYT Connections (extended)83.1%—
CritPt—8.3%
DTBench89.1%—
LMCA43.1%—
ForecastBench58.5—

Math Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 51.7 (#55), Inkling-Small: 45.1 (#77)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewInkling-Small
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)51.2%46.3%
FrontierMath Tier 417.1%17.1%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202595.6%90%
ProofBench15%6%
LMArena Math14731459
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions67.6%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)35.6%—
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)4.2%—

Knowledge Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 58.8 (#33), Inkling-Small: 48.2 (#77)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewInkling-Small
GPQA Diamond89.4%88.5%
SimpleQA Verified66.8%19.1%
LMArena Expert14621442
Vectara Hallucination Rate13.5%—

Multimodal Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 45.5 (#16), Inkling-Small: 39.1 (#62)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewInkling-Small
LMArena Vision12851235
GeoBench88%—
VPCT72.6%—
Blueprint-Bench 20%—
LMArena Document1413—

Multilingual Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 55.7 (#27), Inkling-Small: 51.7 (#104)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewInkling-Small
LMArena Non-English14581402
LMArena Chinese15111465
LMArena French14771436
LMArena German14971405
LMArena Japanese14891405
LMArena Korean14431363
LMArena Russian14801391
LMArena Spanish14691428

Instruction Following Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 75.7 (#56), Inkling-Small: 73.8 (#114)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewInkling-Small
LMArena Instruction Following14371399

Long Context Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 44.4 (#67), Inkling-Small: 42.7 (#118)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewInkling-Small
LMArena Longer Query14521401

Writing & Preference Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 65.5 (#45), Inkling-Small: 59.6 (#107)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewInkling-Small
LMArena Text14661414
LMArena Creative Writing14571331
LMArena Multi-Turn14711418
EQ-Bench Creative Writing—1491

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3 Flash Preview better than Inkling-Small?

Gemini 3 Flash Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 52.3 to 46.5 on the Noometry Index. Inkling-Small costs 1.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3 Flash Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Flash Preview 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 Flash Preview lists at $0.50 and $3.

Is Gemini 3 Flash Preview or Inkling-Small better for coding?

Gemini 3 Flash Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.9 versus 43.6 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3 Flash Preview does, with 1.05M tokens against 524K.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3 Flash Preview and Inkling-Small share?

30 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3 Flash Preview has 59 scored results on Noometry and Inkling-Small has 33.

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