Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Inkling Small vs Muse Spark 1.1
Gemini 3.6 Flash comes out ahead, 72 to 69 and 68 on our weighted score, though Inkling Small is 47% cheaper per token.
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 3.6 Flash
72/100- ECI154.7
- Price$0.75 / $3.75
- Context1.05M
Thinking MachinesInkling Small
68/100- ECI150.5
- Price$0.58 / $1.44
- Context1.05M
MetaMuse Spark 1.1
69/100- ECI154.2
- Price$1.25 / $4.25
- Context1.05M
Gemini 3.6 Flash is our pick
Gemini 3.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 72/100 against Muse Spark 1.1 (69) and Inkling Small (68). It leads on inputs & features. Inkling Small wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGemini 3.6 FlashCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 3.6 Flash 154.7 · Muse Spark 1.1 154.2 · Inkling Small 150.5
- Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.795 · Gemini 3.6 Flash $1.50 · Muse Spark 1.1 $2.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextAbout the sameGemini 3.6 Flash 1,048,576 · Inkling Small 1,048,576 · Muse Spark 1.1 1,048,576 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 3.6 FlashGemini 3.6 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio · Muse Spark 1.1: Text, Images, PDFs, Video
- Self-hostingInkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Inkling Small | Muse Spark 1.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 82 | 77 | 82 |
| Price | 25% | 40 | 52 | 34 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 70 | 90 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 61 | 61 |
| Overall | 100% | 72/100 | 68/100 | 69/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemini 3.6 FlashGoogle | Inkling SmallThinking Machines | Muse Spark 1.1Meta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 154.7 (best) | 150.5 | 154.2 |
| ECI rank | #42 of 165 (best) | #58 of 165 | #46 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 94.1% (best) | 88.5% | — |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 59.0% (best) | 46.3% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 94.2% (best) | 90.0% | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 66.2% (best) | 19.1% | 57.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.75 | $0.58 (best) | $1.25 |
| Output | $3.75 | $1.44 (best) | $4.25 |
| Cached input | $0.075 (best) | $0.116 | $0.15 |
| Blended (3:1) | $1.50 | $0.795 (best) | $2.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Official Thinking Machines API | Official Meta API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | No | Yes |
| Audio | Yes | Yes | No |
| Video | Yes | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yesminimal · low · medium · high | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yesminimal · low · medium · high · xhigh |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenApache-2.0 | Proprietary |
| API model ID | gemini-3.6-flash | thinkingmachines/Inkling-Small | muse-spark-1.1 |
| API providers | 31 (best) | 12 | 15 |
| Released | Jul 21, 2026 | Jul 30, 2026 | Jul 9, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Mar 2026 | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Gemini 3.6 Flash$15.00
- Inkling Small$8.68
- Muse Spark 1.1$21.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 3.6 Flash, Inkling Small or Muse Spark 1.1?
Gemini 3.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 72/100 against Muse Spark 1.1 (69) and Inkling Small (68). It leads on inputs & features. Inkling Small wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.6 Flash, Inkling Small or Muse Spark 1.1?
Inkling Small is cheaper at $0.58 input / $1.44 output per million tokens (official Thinking Machines API price). Gemini 3.6 Flash costs $0.75 input / $3.75 output per million tokens (official Google API price); Muse Spark 1.1 costs $1.25 input / $4.25 output per million tokens (official Meta API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.795 per million tokens for Inkling Small versus $1.50 for Gemini 3.6 Flash (1.9× as much) and $2.00 for Muse Spark 1.1 (2.5× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 3.6 Flash 154.7 (#42 of 165), Muse Spark 1.1 154.2 (#46 of 165) and Inkling Small 150.5 (#58 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (153.0–156.7 vs 151.3–156.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: SimpleQA Verified — Gemini 3.6 Flash 66.2%, Muse Spark 1.1 57.8%, Inkling Small 19.1%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 3.6 Flash, Inkling Small and Muse Spark 1.1 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 3.6 Flash leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 3.6 Flash, Inkling Small and Muse Spark 1.1 share the same 1,048,576-token context window. Maximum output per response: Gemini 3.6 Flash up to 65,536, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576, Muse Spark 1.1 up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemini 3.6 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio; Muse Spark 1.1 accepts text, images, PDFs and video. Gemini 3.6 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Inkling Small publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Gemini 3.6 Flash and Muse Spark 1.1 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Inkling Small is the newest, released Jul 30, 2026. Gemini 3.6 Flash came out Jul 21, 2026; Muse Spark 1.1 came out Jul 9, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 3.6 Flash Mar 2026.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Nov 2, 2026.
Related comparisons
- Gemini 3.6 Flash vs DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813DeepSeek · ECI 155.9
- Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GLM-5.3Z.ai (Zhipu) · ECI 156.2
- Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Grok 4.5xAI · ECI 154.4
- Inkling Small vs Qwen3.8 27BAlibaba (Qwen) · ECI 151.8
- Inkling Small vs Mistral Large 4Mistral AI · ECI 150.6
- Inkling Small vs Kimi K2.7 CodeMoonshot AI · ECI 150.2
