DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus vs Inkling Small
Inkling Small leads DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 25.7 to 14.8, at about the same output price ($1.20 vs $1.0142 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 27 benchmarks have a result for both.
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus or Inkling Small: which to pick
Only Inkling Small has a coding score, 27.3 on the Vibe Coding Index; DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus for output tokens 1.2x cheaper ($1.0142 vs $1.20 per million) and work measured by LMArena Text: hard prompts or LMArena Text: hard prompts in English, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 27
- DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus only
- 18
- Inkling Small only
- 57
- Like-for-like categories
- 7 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Only Inkling Small has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Inkling Small
Inkling Small leads, 25.7 against 14.8.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Inkling Small
Inkling Small leads, 23.5 against 6.8.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Inkling Small has a GPQA Diamond result, 83.6%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Inkling Small has a MMLU Pro result, 85.6%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus has a Design Arena: websites result, 1187.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Inkling Small has a Vals Index result, 27.6%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Inkling Small
Inkling Small takes 524K tokens against 164K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus $0.0008, Inkling Small $0.0010 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Inkling Small has the number, $0.16.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus not benchmarked, Inkling Small 27.3 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 16.7 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run): DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus 16.4% against Inkling Small 33.3%, 16.9 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus $1.0142 against Inkling Small $1.20 per million output tokens, 1.2x apart.
- Context window
- DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus takes 164K tokens, Inkling Small 524K.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Bars | Inkling Small | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 4 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 2 | ||
| Math | 0 | 1 | ||
| Knowledge | 4 | 0 | ||
| General | 9 | 3 | ||
| All shared boards | 15 | 12 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index04
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1409 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| AA Coding Index | 43.5 | 52.9 | Inkling Small |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.9% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 82.2% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 19.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 13.7% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.5% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 9.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 55.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 33.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 79.8% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| SciCode | 38.0% | 49.7% | Inkling Small |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 31.8% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| ALE-Bench | 745.2 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1425 | 1450 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1426 | 1447 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1399 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1398 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | Not measured | 1410 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 18 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 14.8 | 25.7 | Inkling Small |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 150.3 | Only Inkling Small measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 6.8 | 23.5 | Inkling Small |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 41.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 15.4% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 25.5% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.9% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 31.8% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 37.1% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 34 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index22
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 83.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 79.2% | 89.5% | Inkling Small |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 16.4% | 33.3% | Inkling Small |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 88.5% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 84.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 40.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 6.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1426 | 1423 | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1441 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1432 | 1429 | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1251 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1257 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 57.4% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | 89.7 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 89.7% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 90.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 46.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 17.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 6.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1402 | 1459 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1441 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 85.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 83.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 69.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 75.5% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 62.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 37.9% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 85.1% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 19.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1451 | 1428 | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1468 | 1413 | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1457 | 1415 | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1414 | 1413 | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1187 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1182 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1131 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1167 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1141 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1175 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1065 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index93
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 27.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 59.4% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 32.7% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 84.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | Not measured | 50.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| IFBench | 57.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 69.3% | 75.7% | Inkling Small |
| DTBench | 81.3% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| LMCA | 28.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| LMArena Text | 1419 | 1413 | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1404 | 1399 | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1403 | 1334 | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1237 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1429 | 1421 | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1408 | 1401 | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1464 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1408 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1401 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1367 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1435 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1422 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1435 | 1394 | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1427 | 1428 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1411 | 1416 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1422 | 1402 | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1409 | 1357 | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1391 | 1352 | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1243 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1292 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1243 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1207 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1205 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Thinking Machines Inkling Small |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | DeepSeek | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | September 22, 2025 | July 30, 2026 |
| Context window | 164K | 524K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.3063 | $0.45 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.0142 | $1.20 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | 27.3 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $0.16 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus better than Inkling Small for coding?
Only Inkling Small has a coding score, 27.3 on the Vibe Coding Index; DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus for output tokens 1.2x cheaper ($1.0142 vs $1.20 per million) and work measured by LMArena Text: hard prompts or LMArena Text: hard prompts in English, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus or Inkling Small?
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus costs $0.3063 per million input tokens and $1.0142 per million output tokens; Inkling Small costs $0.45 and $1.20. Cost per solved task is known for Inkling Small only.
Which has the bigger context window, DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus or Inkling Small?
Inkling Small, with 524K tokens against 164K.
How many benchmarks is the DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus vs Inkling Small comparison based on?
27 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Inkling Small's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.