Mistral Large 2.1 vs Inkling Small vs Claude Haiku 3.5
Inkling Small comes out ahead, 68 to 46 and 38 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Mistral AIMistral Large 2.1
38/100- ECI128.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context131K
- Our pick
Thinking MachinesInkling Small
68/100- ECI150.5
- Price$0.58 / $1.44
- Context1.05M
AnthropicClaude Haiku 3.5
46/100- ECI127.0
- Price$0.80 / $4.00
- Context200K
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 inputsInkling Small and Claude Haiku 3.5Mistral Large 2.1: Text · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio · Claude Haiku 3.5: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingMistral Large 2.1 and Inkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Mistral Large 2.1 | Inkling Small | Claude Haiku 3.5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 50 | 77 | 48 |
| Price | 25% | 26 | 52 | 38 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 25 | 70 | 60 |
| Context window | 10% | 25 | 61 | 32 |
| Overall | 100% | 38/100 | 68/100 | 46/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Mistral Large 2.1Mistral AI | Inkling SmallThinking Machines | Claude Haiku 3.5Anthropic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 128.6 | 150.5 (best) | 127.0 |
| ECI rank | #142 of 165 | #58 of 165 (best) | #147 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 51.3% | 88.5% (best) | 38.1% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 46.3% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 7.8% | 90.0% (best) | 4.3% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | 19.1% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $2.00 | $0.58 (best) | $0.80 |
| Output | $6.00 | $1.44 (best) | $4.00 |
| Cached input | — | $0.116 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $3.00 | $0.795 (best) | $1.60 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 2 providers | Official Thinking Machines API | Median of 3 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 200,000 tokens |
| Max output | 16,384 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | Yes |
| 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 | Open | OpenApache-2.0 | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | thinkingmachines/Inkling-Small | — |
| API providers | 2 | 12 (best) | 4 |
| Released | Nov 18, 2024 | Jul 30, 2026 | Oct 22, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Nov 2024 | — | Jul 31, 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Mistral Large 2.1$32.00
- Inkling Small$8.68
- Claude Haiku 3.5$16.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mistral Large 2.1, Inkling Small or Claude Haiku 3.5?
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, Mistral Large 2.1, Inkling Small or Claude Haiku 3.5?
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 Mistral Large 2.1, Inkling Small and Claude Haiku 3.5 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: Mistral Large 2.1 up to 16,384, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576, Claude Haiku 3.5 up to 8,192 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Mistral Large 2.1 accepts text; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio; Claude Haiku 3.5 accepts text, images and PDFs. Inkling Small handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Mistral Large 2.1 and Inkling Small 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: Mistral Large 2.1 Nov 2024, Claude Haiku 3.5 Jul 31, 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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