Inkling Small vs Mistral Large 4 vs Muse Spark 1.1
Too close to call on our weighted score (Muse Spark 1.1 69, Inkling Small 68, Mistral Large 4 67). The right pick depends on what you value most.
Thinking MachinesInkling Small
68/100- ECI150.5
- Price$0.58 / $1.44
- Context1.05M
Mistral AIMistral Large 4
67/100- ECI150.6
- Price$0.70 / $2.10
- Context1.05M
MetaMuse Spark 1.1
69/100- ECI154.2
- Price$1.25 / $4.25
- Context1.05M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Muse Spark 1.1 69/100, Inkling Small 68/100, Mistral Large 4 67/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Muse Spark 1.1 for raw capability and Inkling Small on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityMuse Spark 1.1Capabilities Index (ECI): Muse Spark 1.1 154.2 · Mistral Large 4 150.6 · Inkling Small 150.5
- Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.795 · Mistral Large 4 $1.05 · Muse Spark 1.1 $2.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextAbout the sameInkling Small 1,048,576 · Mistral Large 4 1,048,576 · Muse Spark 1.1 1,048,576 tokens
- Widest inputsMuse Spark 1.1Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio · Mistral Large 4: Text, Images · Muse Spark 1.1: Text, Images, PDFs, Video
- Self-hostingInkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Inkling Small | Mistral Large 4 | Muse Spark 1.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 77 | 77 | 82 |
| Price | 25% | 52 | 47 | 34 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 70 | 90 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 61 | 61 |
| Overall | 100% | 68/100 | 67/100 | 69/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Inkling SmallThinking Machines | Mistral Large 4Mistral AI | Muse Spark 1.1Meta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 150.5 | 150.6 | 154.2 (best) |
| ECI rank | #58 of 165 | #57 of 165 | #46 of 165 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 88.5% (best) | 88.1% | — |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 46.3% | 58.6% (best) | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 90.0% | 98.3% (best) | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 19.1% | 20.0% | 57.8% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.58 (best) | $0.70 | $1.25 |
| Output | $1.44 (best) | $2.10 | $4.25 |
| Cached input | $0.116 | $0.07 (best) | $0.15 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.795 (best) | $1.05 | $2.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Thinking Machines API | Official Mistral API | Official Meta API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Max output | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | Yes |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | No | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yeslow · medium · high | Yesminimal · low · medium · high · xhigh |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenApache-2.0 | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | thinkingmachines/Inkling-Small | mistral-large-4 | muse-spark-1.1 |
| API providers | 12 | 15 (best) | 15 (best) |
| Released | Jul 30, 2026 | Oct 6, 2026 | Jul 9, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | — | — |
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$8.68
- Mistral Large 4$11.20
- Muse Spark 1.1$21.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Inkling Small, Mistral Large 4 or Muse Spark 1.1?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Muse Spark 1.1 69/100, Inkling Small 68/100, Mistral Large 4 67/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Muse Spark 1.1 for raw capability and Inkling Small on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Inkling Small, Mistral Large 4 or Muse Spark 1.1?
Inkling Small is cheaper at $0.58 input / $1.44 output per million tokens (official Thinking Machines API price). Mistral Large 4 costs $0.70 input / $2.10 output per million tokens (official Mistral 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 $1.05 for Mistral Large 4 (1.3× as much) and $2.00 for Muse Spark 1.1 (2.5× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Muse Spark 1.1 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Muse Spark 1.1 154.2 (#46 of 165), Mistral Large 4 150.6 (#57 of 165) and Inkling Small 150.5 (#58 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (151.3–156.4 vs 147.4–153.5), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: SimpleQA Verified — Muse Spark 1.1 57.8%, Mistral Large 4 20.0%, Inkling Small 19.1%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Inkling Small, Mistral Large 4 and Muse Spark 1.1 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Muse Spark 1.1 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, Mistral Large 4 and Muse Spark 1.1 share the same 1,048,576-token context window. Maximum output per response: Inkling Small up to 1,048,576, Mistral Large 4 up to 262,144, Muse Spark 1.1 up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio; Mistral Large 4 accepts text and images; Muse Spark 1.1 accepts text, images, PDFs and video. Muse Spark 1.1 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; Mistral Large 4 and Muse Spark 1.1 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Mistral Large 4 is the newest, released Oct 6, 2026. Inkling Small came out Jul 30, 2026; Muse Spark 1.1 came out Jul 9, 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.
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