Muse Spark 1.1 vs Inkling Small vs Gemini 3.6 Flash
Gemini 3.6 Flash comes out ahead, 72 to 69 and 68 on our weighted score, though Inkling Small is 47% cheaper per token.
MetaMuse Spark 1.1
69/100- ECI154.2
- Price$1.25 / $4.25
- Context1.05M
Thinking MachinesInkling Small
68/100- ECI150.5
- Price$0.58 / $1.44
- Context1.05M
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 3.6 Flash
72/100- ECI154.7
- Price$0.75 / $3.75
- Context1.05M
Gemini 3.6 Flash is our pick
Gemini 3.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 72/100 against Muse Spark 1.1 (69) and Inkling Small (68). It leads on inputs & features. Inkling Small wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGemini 3.6 FlashCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 3.6 Flash 154.7 · Muse Spark 1.1 154.2 · Inkling Small 150.5
- Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.795 · Gemini 3.6 Flash $1.50 · Muse Spark 1.1 $2.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextAbout the sameMuse Spark 1.1 1,048,576 · Inkling Small 1,048,576 · Gemini 3.6 Flash 1,048,576 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 3.6 FlashMuse Spark 1.1: Text, Images, PDFs, Video · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio · Gemini 3.6 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video
- Self-hostingInkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Muse Spark 1.1 | Inkling Small | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 82 | 77 | 82 |
| Price | 25% | 34 | 52 | 40 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 90 | 70 | 100 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 61 | 61 |
| Overall | 100% | 69/100 | 68/100 | 72/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Muse Spark 1.1Meta | Inkling SmallThinking Machines | Gemini 3.6 FlashGoogle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 154.2 | 150.5 | 154.7 (best) |
| ECI rank | #46 of 165 | #58 of 165 | #42 of 165 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 88.5% | 94.1% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 46.3% | 59.0% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 90.0% | 94.2% (best) |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 57.8% | 19.1% | 66.2% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $1.25 | $0.58 (best) | $0.75 |
| Output | $4.25 | $1.44 (best) | $3.75 |
| Cached input | $0.15 | $0.116 | $0.075 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $2.00 | $0.795 (best) | $1.50 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Meta API | Official Thinking Machines API | Official Google API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Max output | 131,072 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | Yes | Yes |
| Video | Yes | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yesminimal · low · medium · high · xhigh | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yesminimal · low · medium · high |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenApache-2.0 | Proprietary |
| API model ID | muse-spark-1.1 | thinkingmachines/Inkling-Small | gemini-3.6-flash |
| API providers | 15 | 12 | 31 (best) |
| Released | Jul 9, 2026 | Jul 30, 2026 | Jul 21, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | — | Mar 2026 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Muse Spark 1.1$21.00
- Inkling Small$8.68
- Gemini 3.6 Flash$15.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Muse Spark 1.1, Inkling Small or Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Gemini 3.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 72/100 against Muse Spark 1.1 (69) and Inkling Small (68). It leads on inputs & features. Inkling Small wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Muse Spark 1.1, Inkling Small or Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Inkling Small is cheaper at $0.58 input / $1.44 output per million tokens (official Thinking Machines API price). Gemini 3.6 Flash costs $0.75 input / $3.75 output per million tokens (official Google 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 $1.50 for Gemini 3.6 Flash (1.9× as much) and $2.00 for Muse Spark 1.1 (2.5× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 3.6 Flash 154.7 (#42 of 165), Muse Spark 1.1 154.2 (#46 of 165) and Inkling Small 150.5 (#58 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (153.0–156.7 vs 151.3–156.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: SimpleQA Verified — Gemini 3.6 Flash 66.2%, Muse Spark 1.1 57.8%, Inkling Small 19.1%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Muse Spark 1.1, Inkling Small and Gemini 3.6 Flash yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 3.6 Flash 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?
Muse Spark 1.1, Inkling Small and Gemini 3.6 Flash share the same 1,048,576-token context window. Maximum output per response: Muse Spark 1.1 up to 131,072, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576, Gemini 3.6 Flash up to 65,536 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Muse Spark 1.1 accepts text, images, PDFs and video; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio; Gemini 3.6 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video. Gemini 3.6 Flash 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; Muse Spark 1.1 and Gemini 3.6 Flash is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Inkling Small is the newest, released Jul 30, 2026. Gemini 3.6 Flash came out Jul 21, 2026; Muse Spark 1.1 came out Jul 9, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 3.6 Flash 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 Nov 2, 2026.
Related comparisons
- Muse Spark 1.1 vs Grok 4.5xAI · ECI 154.4
- Muse Spark 1.1 vs GLM-5.2Z.ai (Zhipu) · ECI 152.1
- Muse Spark 1.1 vs Qwen3.7 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) · ECI 154.2
- Inkling Small vs Qwen3.8 27BAlibaba (Qwen) · ECI 151.8
- Inkling Small vs Mistral Large 4Mistral AI · ECI 150.6
- Inkling Small vs Kimi K2.7 CodeMoonshot AI · ECI 150.2
