AI model comparison
Inkling Small vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.
Thinking Machines
Inkling Small
Inkling Small is an open-weight multimodal mixture-of-experts model from Thinking Machines Lab, with 12B active parameters out of 276B total.
- Input / 1M
- $0.45
- Output / 1M
- $1.20
- Context
- 524K
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview is a high speed, high value thinking model designed for agentic workflows, multi turn chat, and coding assistance.
- Input / 1M
- $0.50
- Output / 1M
- $3
- Context
- 1.05M
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Inkling Small
1.7x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
26.3 vs 25.7 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
1.05M vs 524K tokens
Newer release
Inkling Small
Released July 30, 2026
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
Gemini 3 Flash Preview26.3Coding index
Gemini 3 Flash PreviewNot availableAgentic index
Gemini 3 Flash PreviewNot availablePricing
Inkling Small vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.45 | $0.50 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $1.20 | $3 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.10 | $0.05 |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | $0.08 |
| Web searchPer request | Not available | $0.014 |
What it costs in practice
Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.
Chat message
2K in, 500 out
Gemini 3 Flash Preview$2.50Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Gemini 3 Flash Preview$27$13.50 cachedLong document summary
150K in, 2K out
Gemini 3 Flash Preview$81$13.50 cachedSpecs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 524K tokens | 1.05M tokens |
| Max output | 262K tokens | 66K tokens |
| Input types | Audio, Image, Text | Audio, File, Image, Text, Video |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | Max, High, Medium, Low, Minimal, None | High, Medium, Low, Minimal |
| Default reasoning effort | High | Medium |
| Release date | July 30, 2026 | December 17, 2025 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Not supported | Supported |
| JSON mode | Not supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Supported | Supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Supported |
| Deterministic seed | Supported | Supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Not supported |
Keep exploring
More on these models
Other head-to-heads, the full model page, and the alternatives list for each model.
Gemini 3 Flash PreviewView full model details- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Hy4 preview
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Step 5 Preview
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs MiniMax M3
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs MiMo-V2.5-Pro
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Gemini 3.6 Flash
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Kimi K2.6
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs GPT-5.4 Mini
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Qwen3.7 Max
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs GLM 5
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Grok Build 0.1
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Qwen3.6 Plus
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Qwen3.7 Plus
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs GLM 5 Turbo
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs GLM 5.1
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Kimi K2.7 Code
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Grok 4.20
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Inkling
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Grok 4.3
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs GPT-5.1
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs GPT-5.1-Codex
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Kimi K2.5
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs GLM 5V Turbo
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs GPT-5
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Nemotron 3 Ultra
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Qwen3.5-27B
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Qwen3.6 27B
Our take
Inkling Small is 1.7x cheaper for a typical chat. Gemini 3 Flash Preview scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (26.3 vs 25.7). Gemini 3 Flash Preview has the larger context window (1.05M vs 524K tokens). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Inkling Small or Gemini 3 Flash Preview cheaper?
Inkling Small is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Inkling Small costs $0.45 per 1M input tokens and $1.20 per 1M output tokens, while Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs $0.50 per 1M input tokens and $3 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Inkling Small or Gemini 3 Flash Preview?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview supports up to 1.05M tokens of context, compared with 524K for Inkling Small.
Is Inkling Small smarter than Gemini 3 Flash Preview?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Inkling Small scores 25.7 and Gemini 3 Flash Preview scores 26.3, putting Gemini 3 Flash Preview ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Inkling Small and Gemini 3 Flash Preview at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Inkling Small and Gemini 3 Flash Preview answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Inkling Small and Gemini 3 Flash Preview at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.