Model comparison
Inkling vs Mistral Small 3
Inkling is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.1 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 45× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Inkling's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 21 shared benchmarks.
Mistral AISummary
- They share 21 benchmarks with published results for both. Inkling scores higher in 7 categories and Mistral Small 3 in 1 category; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Inkling leads 65.2 to 32.2.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 88.9% for Inkling and 6.7% for Mistral Small 3.
- Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $1.87 / $4.68 for Inkling.
- Inkling accepts more context: 66K tokens versus 33K.
Side by side
| Inkling | Mistral Small 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Thinking Machines Lab | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 44.1 | 31.2 |
| Released | 2026-07-15 | 2025-01-30 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 66K | 33K |
| Max output | 66K | 16K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $1.87 | $0.05 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $4.68 | $0.08 |
| Results tracked | 41 | 24 |
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Category by category
Coding Mistral Small 3 leads
Inkling: 34.5 (#234), Mistral Small 3: 36.5 (#207)
| Benchmark | Inkling | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1464 | 1246 |
| FrontierCode | 14% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1413 | — |
| FrontierSWE | 4.1% | — |
| SciCode | 47% | — |
| WeirdML | 32.3% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 45.3% |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 50.4% |
| ALE-Bench | 946 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Inkling: 29.6 (#85), Mistral Small 3: —
| Benchmark | Inkling | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 33.8% | — |
| τ²-bench Banking | 25% | — |
Reasoning Inkling leads
Inkling: 40.4 (#56), Mistral Small 3: 18.9 (#273)
| Benchmark | Inkling | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 21% | 0% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1451 | 1233 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 148.54 | 127.07 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 36.5% | — |
| SimpleBench | 50% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 79.5% | — |
| CritPt | 5.4% | — |
| DTBench | 87.5% | — |
| LMCA | 37.6% | — |
Math Inkling leads
Inkling: 31.3 (#225), Mistral Small 3: 16.3 (#295)
| Benchmark | Inkling | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 88.9% | 6.7% |
| LMArena Math | 1479 | 1240 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 33.3% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 4.9% | — |
| ProofBench | 0% | — |
Knowledge Inkling leads
Inkling: 55.1 (#49), Mistral Small 3: 25.1 (#263)
| Benchmark | Inkling | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 88.3% | 47.3% |
| LMArena Expert | 1465 | 1202 |
| SimpleQA Verified | 40.3% | — |
| Confabulations | — | 25.2% |
Multilingual Inkling leads
Inkling: 54.0 (#52), Mistral Small 3: 37.3 (#236)
| Benchmark | Inkling | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1434 | 1198 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1490 | 1204 |
| LMArena French | 1458 | 1203 |
| LMArena German | 1446 | 1211 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1429 | 1111 |
| LMArena Korean | 1404 | 1188 |
| LMArena Russian | 1429 | 1216 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1448 | — |
Instruction Following Inkling leads
Inkling: 75.1 (#71), Mistral Small 3: 63.7 (#229)
| Benchmark | Inkling | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1426 | 1214 |
Long Context Inkling leads
Inkling: 43.8 (#86), Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#211)
| Benchmark | Inkling | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1434 | 1246 |
Writing & Preference Inkling leads
Inkling: 65.2 (#51), Mistral Small 3: 32.2 (#280)
| Benchmark | Inkling | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1441 | 1234 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1387 | 1195 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1611 | 707 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1436 | 1217 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1226 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Inkling better than Mistral Small 3?
Inkling is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.1 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 45× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Inkling's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Inkling or Mistral Small 3?
Mistral Small 3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Inkling lists at $1.87 and $4.68.
Is Inkling or Mistral Small 3 better for coding?
Mistral Small 3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 36.5 versus 34.5 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Inkling does, with 66K tokens against 33K.
How many benchmarks do Inkling and Mistral Small 3 share?
21 benchmarks have published results for both models. Inkling has 41 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3 has 24.