Claude Haiku 3.5 vs Inkling Small vs Mistral Large 2.1
Inkling Small comes out ahead, 68 to 46 and 38 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
AnthropicClaude Haiku 3.5
46/100- ECI127.0
- Price$0.80 / $4.00
- Context200K
- Our pick
Thinking MachinesInkling Small
68/100- ECI150.5
- Price$0.58 / $1.44
- Context1.05M
Mistral AIMistral Large 2.1
38/100- ECI128.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context131K
Inkling Small is our pick
Inkling Small is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Claude Haiku 3.5 (46) and Mistral Large 2.1 (38). It leads on capability, price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityInkling SmallCapabilities Index (ECI): Inkling Small 150.5 · Mistral Large 2.1 128.6 · Claude Haiku 3.5 127.0
- Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.795 · Claude Haiku 3.5 $1.60 · Mistral Large 2.1 $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextInkling SmallInkling Small 1,048,576 · Claude Haiku 3.5 200,000 · Mistral Large 2.1 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Haiku 3.5 and Inkling SmallClaude Haiku 3.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio · Mistral Large 2.1: Text
- Self-hostingInkling Small and Mistral Large 2.1Publishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Claude Haiku 3.5 | Inkling Small | Mistral Large 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 48 | 77 | 50 |
| Price | 25% | 38 | 52 | 26 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 60 | 70 | 25 |
| Context window | 10% | 32 | 61 | 25 |
| Overall | 100% | 46/100 | 68/100 | 38/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Claude Haiku 3.5Anthropic | Inkling SmallThinking Machines | Mistral Large 2.1Mistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 127.0 | 150.5 (best) | 128.6 |
| ECI rank | #147 of 165 | #58 of 165 (best) | #142 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 38.1% | 88.5% (best) | 51.3% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 46.3% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 4.3% | 90.0% (best) | 7.8% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | 19.1% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.80 | $0.58 (best) | $2.00 |
| Output | $4.00 | $1.44 (best) | $6.00 |
| Cached input | — | $0.116 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $1.60 | $0.795 (best) | $3.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 3 providers | Official Thinking Machines API | Median of 2 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 200,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | Yes | No | No |
| Audio | No | Yes | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenApache-2.0 | Open |
| API model ID | — | thinkingmachines/Inkling-Small | — |
| API providers | 4 | 12 (best) | 2 |
| Released | Oct 22, 2024 | Jul 30, 2026 | Nov 18, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jul 31, 2024 | — | Nov 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Claude Haiku 3.5$16.00
- Inkling Small$8.68
- Mistral Large 2.1$32.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Claude Haiku 3.5, Inkling Small or Mistral Large 2.1?
Inkling Small is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Claude Haiku 3.5 (46) and Mistral Large 2.1 (38). It leads on capability, price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Claude Haiku 3.5, Inkling Small or Mistral Large 2.1?
Inkling Small is cheaper at $0.58 input / $1.44 output per million tokens (official Thinking Machines API price). Claude Haiku 3.5 costs $0.80 input / $4.00 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers); Mistral Large 2.1 costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.795 per million tokens for Inkling Small versus $1.60 for Claude Haiku 3.5 (2× as much) and $3.00 for Mistral Large 2.1 (3.8× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Inkling Small scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Inkling Small 150.5 (#58 of 165), Mistral Large 2.1 128.6 (#142 of 165) and Claude Haiku 3.5 127.0 (#147 of 165). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (147.7–152.4 vs 124.3–130.7), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Inkling Small 88.5%, Mistral Large 2.1 51.3%, Claude Haiku 3.5 38.1%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Inkling Small 90.0%, Mistral Large 2.1 7.8%, Claude Haiku 3.5 4.3%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Haiku 3.5, Inkling Small and Mistral Large 2.1 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. All three 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 200,000 for Claude Haiku 3.5 and 131,072 for Mistral Large 2.1. Maximum output per response: Claude Haiku 3.5 up to 8,192, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576, Mistral Large 2.1 up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Claude Haiku 3.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio; Mistral Large 2.1 accepts text. Claude Haiku 3.5 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Inkling Small and Mistral Large 2.1 publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Claude Haiku 3.5 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Inkling Small is the newest, released Jul 30, 2026. Mistral Large 2.1 came out Nov 18, 2024; Claude Haiku 3.5 came out Oct 22, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Haiku 3.5 Jul 31, 2024, Mistral Large 2.1 Nov 2024.
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.
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