AI model comparison
Inkling Small vs MiniMax M3
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
MiniMax
MiniMax M3
MiniMax-M3 is a multimodal foundation model from MiniMax.
- Input / 1M
- $0.30
- Output / 1M
- $1.20
- Context
- 1.05M
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
MiniMax M3
1.3x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
MiniMax M3
29.2 vs 25.7 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
MiniMax M3
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
Coding index
Agentic index
Pricing
Inkling Small vs MiniMax M3 API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.45 | $0.30 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $1.20 | $1.20 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.10 | $0.06 |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
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
Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Long document summary
150K in, 2K out
Specs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 524K tokens | 1.05M tokens |
| Max output | 262K tokens | 512K tokens |
| Input types | Audio, Image, Text | Image, Text, Video |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | Max, High, Medium, Low, Minimal, None | Not available |
| Default reasoning effort | High | Not available |
| Release date | July 30, 2026 | May 31, 2026 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| 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.
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- MiniMax M3 vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423
- MiniMax M3 vs Hy3
- MiniMax M3 vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview
- MiniMax M3 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423
- MiniMax M3 vs Solar Pro 4
- MiniMax M3 vs Qwen3.8 27B
- MiniMax M3 vs GLM 5.3 FlashX
- MiniMax M3 vs DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Exp
- MiniMax M3 vs MiMo-V2.5-Pro
- MiniMax M3 vs Kimi K2.6
- MiniMax M3 vs Qwen3.7 Max
- MiniMax M3 vs GPT-5.6 Luna Pro
- MiniMax M3 vs GLM 5
- MiniMax M3 vs Grok Build 0.1
- MiniMax M3 vs Qwen3.6 Plus
- MiniMax M3 vs Qwen3.7 Plus
- MiniMax M3 vs MiniMax M2.7
- MiniMax M3 vs MiniMax M2.5
- MiniMax M3 vs MiniMax M2.1
Our take
MiniMax M3 is 1.3x cheaper for a typical chat. MiniMax M3 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (29.2 vs 25.7). MiniMax M3 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 MiniMax M3 cheaper?
MiniMax M3 is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). MiniMax M3 costs $0.30 per 1M input tokens and $1.20 per 1M output tokens, while Inkling Small costs $0.45 per 1M input tokens and $1.20 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Inkling Small or MiniMax M3?
MiniMax M3 supports up to 1.05M tokens of context, compared with 524K for Inkling Small.
Is Inkling Small smarter than MiniMax M3?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Inkling Small scores 25.7 and MiniMax M3 scores 29.2, putting MiniMax M3 ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Inkling Small and MiniMax M3 at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Inkling Small and MiniMax M3 answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Inkling Small and MiniMax M3 at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.