AI model comparison
Inkling Small vs Nemotron 3 Ultra
Side by side comparison of Inkling Small and Nemotron 3 Ultra on pricing, benchmark scores, context window, and more.
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
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra is an open frontier-reasoning and orchestration model from NVIDIA, with 55B active parameters out of 550B total (MoE).
- Input / 1M
- $0.60
- Output / 1M
- $2.40
- Context
- 262K
Comparing image generators? Compare image models
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Inkling Small
1.6x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Inkling Small
12.9 vs 11.8 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Inkling Small
524K vs 262K 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 Nemotron 3 Ultra API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.45 | $0.60 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $1.20 | $2.40 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.10 | $0.12 |
| 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 | 262K tokens |
| Max output | 262K tokens | 183K tokens |
| Input types | Audio, Image, Text | Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | Max, High, Medium, Low, Minimal, None | High, Medium, None |
| Default reasoning effort | High | High |
| Release date | July 30, 2026 | June 4, 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.
- Inkling Small vs Qwen3.8 27B
- Inkling Small vs MiniMax M3
- Inkling Small vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL
- Inkling Small vs Inkling
- Inkling Small vs Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
- Inkling Small vs Muse Glimmer 30B
- Inkling Small vs Command A+
- Inkling Small vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017
- Inkling Small vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
- Inkling Small vs GLM 5.3 Flash
- Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Qwen3.8 27B
- Nemotron 3 Ultra vs MiniMax M3
- Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL
- Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Inkling
- Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
- Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Muse Glimmer 30B
- Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Command A+
- Nemotron 3 Ultra vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017
- Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Hy4 preview
Our take
Inkling Small is 1.6x cheaper for a typical chat. Inkling Small scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (12.9 vs 11.8). Inkling Small has the larger context window (524K vs 262K 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 Nemotron 3 Ultra 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 Nemotron 3 Ultra costs $0.60 per 1M input tokens and $2.40 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Inkling Small or Nemotron 3 Ultra?
Inkling Small supports up to 524K tokens of context, compared with 262K for Nemotron 3 Ultra.
Is Inkling Small smarter than Nemotron 3 Ultra?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Inkling Small scores 12.9 and Nemotron 3 Ultra scores 11.8, putting Inkling Small ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Inkling Small and Nemotron 3 Ultra at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Inkling Small and Nemotron 3 Ultra answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Inkling Small and Nemotron 3 Ultra at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.