ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Kimi K2.6 vs Inkling Small

Inkling Small comes out ahead, 68 to 64 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Moonshot AI

    Kimi K2.6

    Released Apr 20, 2026

    64/100
    • ECI151.1
    • Price$0.95 / $4.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Kimi K2.6
  2. Our pick

    Thinking Machines

    Inkling Small

    Released Jul 30, 2026

    68/100
    • ECI150.5
    • Price$0.58 / $1.44
    • 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 68/100 against Kimi K2.6 (64). It leads on price and context window. Kimi K2.6 wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityKimi K2.6Capabilities Index (ECI): Kimi K2.6 151.1 · Inkling Small 150.5
  • Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.795 · Kimi K2.6 $1.71 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextInkling SmallInkling Small 1,048,576 · Kimi K2.6 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsKimi K2.6: Text, Images, Video · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightKimi K2.6Inkling Small
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7877
Price25%3752
Inputs & features15%8070
Context window10%3761
Overall100%64/10068/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Kimi K2.6 vs Inkling Small specifications side by side
SpecificationKimi K2.6Moonshot AIInkling SmallThinking Machines
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)151.1 (best)150.5
ECI rank#55 of 165 (best)#58 of 165
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions90.8% (best)88.5%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics57.2% (best)46.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics96.1% (best)90.0%
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues76.7%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions34.9% (best)19.1%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.95$0.58 (best)
Output$4.00$1.44 (best)
Cached input$0.16$0.116 (best)
Blended (3:1)$1.71$0.795 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Moonshot AI APIOfficial Thinking Machines API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Max output262,144 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoYes
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYesYeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenApache-2.0
API model IDkimi-k2.6thinkingmachines/Inkling-Small
API providers60 (best)12
ReleasedApr 20, 2026Jul 30, 2026
Knowledge cutoffJan 2025—
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.

  • Kimi K2.6$17.50
  • Inkling Small$8.68
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Kimi K2.6 or Inkling Small?

Inkling Small is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Kimi K2.6 (64). It leads on price and context window. Kimi K2.6 wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Kimi K2.6 or Inkling Small?

Inkling Small is cheaper at $0.58 input / $1.44 output per million tokens (official Thinking Machines API price). Kimi K2.6 costs $0.95 input / $4.00 output per million tokens (official Moonshot AI 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 $1.71 for Kimi K2.6 (2.2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Kimi K2.6 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Kimi K2.6 151.1 (#55 of 165) and Inkling Small 150.5 (#58 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (149.1–152.9 vs 147.7–152.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Kimi K2.6 90.8%, Inkling Small 88.5%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Kimi K2.6 57.2%, Inkling Small 46.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Kimi K2.6 96.1%, Inkling Small 90.0%; SimpleQA Verified — Kimi K2.6 34.9%, Inkling Small 19.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Inkling Small yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Kimi K2.6 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 262,144 for Kimi K2.6. Maximum output per response: Kimi K2.6 up to 262,144, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Kimi K2.6 accepts text, images and video; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, both publish their weights (Apache-2.0), so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Inkling Small is the newest, released Jul 30, 2026. Kimi K2.6 came out Apr 20, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Kimi K2.6 Jan 2025.

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.

05 — Keep comparing

Related comparisons