# Gemma 4 26B A4B IT vs Inkling-Small

> Inkling-Small is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.5 to 43.5 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 4 26B A4B IT costs 4.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Inkling-Small's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-4-26b-a4b-it-vs-inkling-small
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 23

## Summary

- They share 23 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 4 26B A4B IT scores higher in 5 categories and Inkling-Small in 4 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Inkling-Small leads 38.6 to 21.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is GPQA Diamond: 73.2% for Gemma 4 26B A4B IT and 88.5% for Inkling-Small.
- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is cheaper at $0.09 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $0.45 / $1.20 for Inkling-Small.
- Inkling-Small accepts more context: 524K tokens versus 262K.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Inkling-Small |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Thinking Machines Lab |
| Noometry Index | 43.5 | 46.5 |
| Rank | 92 | 63 |
| Context | 262K | 524K |
| Input $/M | $0.09 | $0.45 |
| Output $/M | $0.30 | $1.20 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 39.0 (#164)
- Inkling-Small: 43.6 (#85)

| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Inkling-Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1359 | 1409 |
| SciCode | 40% | 48.7% |
| LMArena Coding | 1447 | 1451 |
| WeirdML | 35.2% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 927.17 | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 21.8 (#213)
- Inkling-Small: 38.6 (#63)

| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Inkling-Small |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0% | 8.3% |
| Chess Puzzles | 6% | 18% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1439 | 1423 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 141.85 | 150.15 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | — | 40.1% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | — | 84% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 6% |
| DTBench | 74.9% | — |
| LMCA | 29.7% | — |

## Math

- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 47.6 (#67)
- Inkling-Small: 45.1 (#77)

| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Inkling-Small |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 82.2% | 90% |
| LMArena Math | 1470 | 1459 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 46.3% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | — | 17.1% |
| ProofBench | — | 6% |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 45.7 (#85)
- Inkling-Small: 48.2 (#77)

| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Inkling-Small |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 73.2% | 88.5% |
| LMArena Expert | 1447 | 1442 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 19.1% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 5.2% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 40.6 (#46)
- Inkling-Small: 39.1 (#62)

| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Inkling-Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1260 | 1235 |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 53.1 (#71)
- Inkling-Small: 51.7 (#104)

| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Inkling-Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1421 | 1402 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1495 | 1465 |
| LMArena French | 1460 | 1436 |
| LMArena Russian | 1434 | 1391 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1417 | 1428 |
| LMArena German | — | 1405 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1405 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1363 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 74.8 (#82)
- Inkling-Small: 73.8 (#114)

| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Inkling-Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1420 | 1399 |

## Long Context

- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 43.6 (#91)
- Inkling-Small: 42.7 (#118)

| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Inkling-Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1428 | 1401 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 58.6 (#115)
- Inkling-Small: 59.6 (#107)

| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Inkling-Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1434 | 1414 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1402 | 1331 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1305 | 1491 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1441 | 1418 |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 4 26B A4B IT better than Inkling-Small?

Inkling-Small is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.5 to 43.5 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 4 26B A4B IT costs 4.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Inkling-Small's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemma 4 26B A4B IT or Inkling-Small?

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is cheaper. It lists at $0.09 per million input tokens and $0.30 per million output tokens; Inkling-Small lists at $0.45 and $1.20.

### Is Gemma 4 26B A4B IT or Inkling-Small better for coding?

Inkling-Small scores higher on coding benchmarks: 43.6 versus 39.0 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Inkling-Small does, with 524K tokens against 262K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 4 26B A4B IT and Inkling-Small share?

23 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 4 26B A4B IT has 28 scored results on Noometry and Inkling-Small has 33.