Model comparison
Inkling-Small vs Step 3
Inkling-Small is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.5 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 16 shared benchmarks.
StepFunSummary
- They share 16 benchmarks with published results for both. Inkling-Small scores higher in 9 categories and Step 3 in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Inkling-Small leads 48.2 to 36.8.
Side by side
| Inkling-Small | Step 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Thinking Machines Lab | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 46.5 | 40.5 |
| Released | 2026-07-15 | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 524K | — |
| Max output | 1.05M | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.45 | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.20 | — |
| Results tracked | 33 | 17 |
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Category by category
Coding Inkling-Small leads
Inkling-Small: 43.6 (#85), Step 3: 40.1 (#147)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1451 | 1367 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1409 | — |
| SciCode | 48.7% | — |
Reasoning Inkling-Small leads
Inkling-Small: 38.6 (#63), Step 3: 28.4 (#105)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1423 | 1355 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 40.1% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 62.3% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 84% | — |
| CritPt | 8.3% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 18% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 6% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 150.15 | — |
Math Inkling-Small leads
Inkling-Small: 45.1 (#77), Step 3: 37.6 (#148)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1459 | 1366 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 46.3% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 17.1% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 90% | — |
| ProofBench | 6% | — |
Knowledge Inkling-Small leads
Inkling-Small: 48.2 (#77), Step 3: 36.8 (#164)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1442 | 1333 |
| GPQA Diamond | 88.5% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 19.1% | — |
Multimodal Inkling-Small leads
Inkling-Small: 39.1 (#62), Step 3: 35.5 (#86)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1235 | 1177 |
Multilingual Inkling-Small leads
Inkling-Small: 51.7 (#104), Step 3: 46.3 (#159)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1402 | 1327 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1465 | 1397 |
| LMArena German | 1405 | 1371 |
| LMArena Korean | 1363 | 1269 |
| LMArena Russian | 1391 | 1331 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1428 | 1371 |
| LMArena French | 1436 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1405 | — |
Instruction Following Inkling-Small leads
Inkling-Small: 73.8 (#114), Step 3: 70.4 (#164)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1399 | 1332 |
Long Context Inkling-Small leads
Inkling-Small: 42.7 (#118), Step 3: 40.3 (#157)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1401 | 1326 |
Writing & Preference Inkling-Small leads
Inkling-Small: 59.6 (#107), Step 3: 54.3 (#151)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1414 | 1350 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1321 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1418 | 1341 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1491 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Inkling-Small better than Step 3?
Inkling-Small is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.5 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index.
Is Inkling-Small or Step 3 better for coding?
Inkling-Small scores higher on coding benchmarks: 43.6 versus 40.1 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Inkling-Small and Step 3 share?
16 benchmarks have published results for both models. Inkling-Small has 33 scored results on Noometry and Step 3 has 17.