# Inkling-Small vs MiniMax M1

> Inkling-Small is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.5 to 40.3 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/inkling-small-vs-minimax-m1
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Inkling-Small scores higher in 8 categories and MiniMax M1 in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Inkling-Small leads 48.2 to 36.4.
- Inkling-Small is cheaper at $0.45 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.55 / $2.20 for MiniMax M1.
- MiniMax M1 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 524K.

## Snapshot

| | Inkling-Small | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Thinking Machines Lab | MiniMax |
| Noometry Index | 46.5 | 40.3 |
| Rank | 63 | 150 |
| Context | 524K | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.45 | $0.55 |
| Output $/M | $1.20 | $2.20 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Inkling-Small: 43.6 (#85)
- MiniMax M1: 39.9 (#153)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1451 | 1359 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1409 | — |
| SciCode | 48.7% | — |

## Reasoning

- Inkling-Small: 38.6 (#63)
- MiniMax M1: 26.9 (#126)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1423 | 1339 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 40.1% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 84% | — |
| CritPt | 8.3% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 18% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 6% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 150.15 | — |

## Math

- Inkling-Small: 45.1 (#77)
- MiniMax M1: 37.5 (#151)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1459 | 1361 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 46.3% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 17.1% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 90% | — |
| ProofBench | 6% | — |

## Knowledge

- Inkling-Small: 48.2 (#77)
- MiniMax M1: 36.4 (#170)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1442 | 1317 |
| GPQA Diamond | 88.5% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 19.1% | — |

## Multimodal

- Inkling-Small: 39.1 (#62)
- MiniMax M1: —

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1235 | — |

## Multilingual

- Inkling-Small: 51.7 (#104)
- MiniMax M1: 45.8 (#163)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1402 | 1319 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1465 | 1360 |
| LMArena French | 1436 | 1370 |
| LMArena German | 1405 | 1350 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1405 | 1217 |
| LMArena Korean | 1363 | 1266 |
| LMArena Russian | 1391 | 1329 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1428 | 1353 |

## Instruction Following

- Inkling-Small: 73.8 (#114)
- MiniMax M1: 69.3 (#174)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1399 | 1312 |

## Long Context

- Inkling-Small: 42.7 (#118)
- MiniMax M1: 41.4 (#141)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1401 | 1326 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 69.4% |

## Writing & Preference

- Inkling-Small: 59.6 (#107)
- MiniMax M1: 53.1 (#161)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1414 | 1343 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1298 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1418 | 1335 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1491 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Inkling-Small better than MiniMax M1?

Inkling-Small is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.5 to 40.3 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Inkling-Small or MiniMax M1?

Inkling-Small is cheaper. It lists at $0.45 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; MiniMax M1 lists at $0.55 and $2.20.

### Is Inkling-Small or MiniMax M1 better for coding?

Inkling-Small scores higher on coding benchmarks: 43.6 versus 39.9 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax M1 does, with 1M tokens against 524K.

### How many benchmarks do Inkling-Small and MiniMax M1 share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Inkling-Small has 33 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax M1 has 18.