ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Inkling Small vs Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite

Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 70, Inkling Small 70). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Thinking Machines

    Inkling Small

    Released Jul 30, 2026

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

  2. Google

    Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite

    Released Jul 21, 2026

    70/100
    • ECI145.1
    • Price$0.30 / $2.50
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite

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01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 70/100, Inkling Small 70/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Inkling Small for raw capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityInkling SmallCapabilities Index (ECI): Inkling Small 150.2 · Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 145.1
  • Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.675 · Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite $0.85 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameInkling Small 1,048,576 · Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 1,048,576 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 3.5 Flash LiteInkling Small: Text, Images, Audio · Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video
  • Self-hostingInkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightInkling SmallGemini 3.5 Flash Lite
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7872
Price25%5853
Inputs & features15%70100
Context window10%6161
Overall100%70/10070/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Inkling Small vs Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite specifications side by side
SpecificationInkling SmallThinking MachinesGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGoogle
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)150.2 (best)145.1
ECI rank#47 of 148 (best)#79 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions88.5% (best)83.3%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics46.3% (best)26.0%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics90.0% (best)71.1%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions19.1%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.50$0.30 (best)
Output$1.20 (best)$2.50
Cached input—$0.03
Blended (3:1)$0.675 (best)$0.85
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 11 providersOfficial Google API
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens1,048,576 tokens
Max output1,048,576 tokens (best)65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioYesYes
VideoNoYes
ReasoningYesYesminimal · low · medium · high
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenApache-2.0Proprietary
API model ID—gemini-3.5-flash-lite
API providers1126 (best)
ReleasedJul 30, 2026Jul 21, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—Mar 2026
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.

  • Inkling Small$7.40
  • Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite$8.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Inkling Small or Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 70/100, Inkling Small 70/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Inkling Small for raw capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Inkling Small or Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite?

Inkling Small is cheaper at $0.50 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs $0.30 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official Google 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 $0.85 for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite (1.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Inkling Small scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Inkling Small 150.2 (#47 of 148) and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 145.1 (#79 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (147.5–152.1 vs 142.5–146.7), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Inkling Small 88.5%, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 83.3%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Inkling Small 46.3%, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 26.0%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Inkling Small 90.0%, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 71.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Inkling Small and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 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 and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite share the same 1,048,576-token context window. Maximum output per response: Inkling Small up to 1,048,576, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio; Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 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 3.5 Flash Lite is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Inkling Small is the newest, released Jul 30, 2026. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite came out Jul 21, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 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 Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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