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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Grok 4.3 vs Inkling Small

Inkling Small comes out ahead, 70 to 67 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. xAI

    Grok 4.3

    Released Apr 17, 2026

    67/100
    • ECI149.2
    • Price$1.25 / $2.50
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Grok 4.3
  2. Our pick

    Thinking Machines

    Inkling Small

    Released Jul 30, 2026

    70/100
    • ECI150.2
    • Price$0.50 / $1.20
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Inkling Small

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Inkling Small is our pick

Inkling Small is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Grok 4.3 (67). It leads on price. Grok 4.3 wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityInkling SmallCapabilities Index (ECI): Inkling Small 150.2 · Grok 4.3 149.2
  • Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.675 · Grok 4.3 $1.56 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextInkling SmallInkling Small 1,048,576 · Grok 4.3 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsGrok 4.3: Text, Images, PDFs · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio
  • Self-hostingInkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGrok 4.3Inkling Small
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7778
Price25%4158
Inputs & features15%8070
Context window10%6061
Overall100%67/10070/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Grok 4.3 vs Inkling Small specifications side by side
SpecificationGrok 4.3xAIInkling SmallThinking Machines
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)149.2150.2 (best)
ECI rank#55 of 148#47 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions88.8% (best)88.5%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics42.8%46.3% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics93.3% (best)90.0%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions33.2% (best)19.1%
Price per million tokens
Input$1.25$0.50 (best)
Output$2.50$1.20 (best)
Cached input$0.20—
Blended (3:1)$1.56$0.675 (best)
Long-context rateOver 200K: $2.50 / $5.00Same rate
Price sourceOfficial xAI APIMedian of 11 providers
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Max output30,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsYesNo
AudioNoYes
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · highYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenApache-2.0
API model IDgrok-4.3—
API providers27 (best)11
ReleasedApr 17, 2026Jul 30, 2026
Knowledge cutoff——
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Grok 4.3$17.50
  • Inkling Small$7.40
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Grok 4.3 or Inkling Small?

Inkling Small is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Grok 4.3 (67). It leads on price. Grok 4.3 wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.3 or Inkling Small?

Inkling Small is cheaper at $0.50 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). Grok 4.3 costs $1.25 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official xAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.675 per million tokens for Inkling Small versus $1.56 for Grok 4.3 (2.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Inkling Small scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Inkling Small 150.2 (#47 of 148) and Grok 4.3 149.2 (#55 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (147.5–152.1 vs 147.6–150.8), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Grok 4.3 88.8%, Inkling Small 88.5%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Inkling Small 46.3%, Grok 4.3 42.8%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Grok 4.3 93.3%, Inkling Small 90.0%; SimpleQA Verified — Grok 4.3 33.2%, Inkling Small 19.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.3 and Inkling Small yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Inkling Small leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Inkling Small has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Grok 4.3. Maximum output per response: Grok 4.3 up to 30,000, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Grok 4.3 accepts text, images and PDFs; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Inkling Small publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Grok 4.3 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Inkling Small is the newest, released Jul 30, 2026. Grok 4.3 came out Apr 17, 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 Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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