Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Inkling Small

Updated October 21, 2026. 82 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.

Replace Gemini 3.8 Flash Replace Inkling Small

Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogle

Coding: 70.5
Overall: 40.9
Output $/M: $4.125

T Inkling SmallThinking Machines

Coding: 29.9
Overall: 25.7
Output $/M: $1.20

vs boards won of 82 shared

Decision reading

Pick Gemini 3.8 Flash for coding: it scores 70.5 on the Vibe Coding Index against 29.9 for Inkling Small.

Pick Inkling Small when output tokens cost 3.4x less, or when a solved task costs $0.16 against $2.74.

Model AGemini 3.8 FlashGoogle70.5/1002 independent benchmarks$2.74 per solved task Model BInkling SmallThinking Machines29.9/1001 independent benchmark$0.16 per solved task

82442

Shared results: 82
Gemini 3.8 Flash only: 44
Inkling Small only: 2
Like-for-like categories: 7 of 9

Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results only one model has describe coverage, not superiority.

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, four public coding benchmarks
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Gemini 3.8 Flash scores 70.5 against 29.9.
2 and 1 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Gemini 3.8 Flash leads, 40.9 against 25.7.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Gemini 3.8 Flash leads, 40.2 against 23.5.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Gemini 3.8 Flash leads, 94.4% against 83.6%.
Same board, both measured
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Gemini 3.8 Flash leads, 90.2% against 85.6%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Gemini 3.8 Flash has a Design Arena: websites result, 1301.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Gemini 3.8 Flash leads, 56.0% against 27.6%.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Gemini 3.8 Flash takes 1.05M tokens against 524K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Inkling Small
Gemini 3.8 Flash $0.0029, Inkling Small $0.0010 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
Inkling Small
Gemini 3.8 Flash $2.74, Inkling Small $0.16.
Published attempt cost and pass rate

At a glance

Coding index: Gemini 3.8 Flash 70.5 from 2 benchmarks, Inkling Small 29.9 from 1 benchmark.
Widest category: Coding, 22.0 points apart on average over 18 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap: Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): Gemini 3.8 Flash 78.7% against Inkling Small 19.1%, 59.6 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price: Gemini 3.8 Flash $4.125 against Inkling Small $1.20 per million output tokens, 3.4x apart.
Context window: Gemini 3.8 Flash takes 1.05M 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.

Boards won, where both have a result
Category	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Inkling Small
Coding	16	2
Intelligence	2	0
Agentic work	6	0
Reasoning	12	0
Math	6	0
Knowledge	9	1
General	28	0
All shared boards	79	3

CodingLike-for-likeFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index162

Coding benchmarks for Gemini 3.8 Flash and Inkling Small
Benchmark	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Inkling Small	Leader
LiveBench coding	82.2%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
LMArena WebDev	1585	1409	Gemini 3.8 Flash
AA Coding Index	76.3	52.9	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)	89.5%	85.9%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)	80.0%	82.2%	Inkling Small
Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI)	19.7%	0.0%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)	78.7%	19.1%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Code migration (Vals AI)	36.5%	13.7%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
ProgramBench (Vals AI)	1.0%	0.5%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
IOI (Vals AI)	56.9%	9.3%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)	81.3%	55.1%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI)	40.8%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI)	18.8%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
SkillsBench (Vals AI)	58.0%	33.6%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
CyberBench (Vals AI)	43.8%	64.1%	Inkling Small
SciCode	56.6%	49.7%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
FrontierCode	41.2%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
FrontierSWE	19.6%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
WeirdML	84.8%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
ALE-Bench	1269.7	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
LMArena Text: coding	1508	1450	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: software and IT	1507	1447	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena WebDev: React	1577	1399	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena WebDev: HTML	1616	1398	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena WebDev: from an image	1593	1410	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here

IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20

Intelligence benchmarks for Gemini 3.8 Flash and Inkling Small
Benchmark	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Inkling Small	Leader
AA Intelligence Index	40.9	25.7	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Epoch Capabilities Index	157.4	150.3	Gemini 3.8 Flash

Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index60

Agentic work benchmarks for Gemini 3.8 Flash and Inkling Small
Benchmark	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Inkling Small	Leader
AA Agentic Index	40.2	23.5	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Design Arena: agents building web apps	1238	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps	1244	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Design Arena: agents building mobile apps	1236	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Design Arena: agents building Android apps	1078	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Design Arena: agents building Godot games	1273	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Design Arena: PowerPoint slides	1178	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Design Arena: spreadsheets	1052	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
LiveBench research	79.1%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
LiveBench browser	64.0%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
LiveBench long agentic	30.1%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
SREBench (Vals AI)	11.1%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Finance Agent (Vals AI)	61.4%	41.3%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)	32.1%	15.4%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)	38.9%	25.5%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI)	12.1%	2.9%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)	72.2%	31.8%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
BioMysteryBench (Vals AI)	62.2%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI)	8.6%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Vals Science Index	35.8%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Time Horizon Index (Vals AI)	18.8%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
CUA-bench (Vals AI)	4.2%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
APEX-Agents	64.3%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Remote Labor Index	5.8%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Vending-Bench 2	$5,094	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here

ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index120

Reasoning benchmarks for Gemini 3.8 Flash and Inkling Small
Benchmark	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Inkling Small	Leader
GPQA Diamond	94.4%	83.6%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LiveBench reasoning	89.3%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
MysteryMechanism (Vals AI)	36.5%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)	89.1%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)	95.3%	89.5%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)	47.8%	33.3%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)	95.4%	88.5%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
ARC-AGI	98.5%	84.0%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
ARC-AGI-2	89.2%	40.1%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Chess puzzles	58.0%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Mystery game puzzles	47.0%	6.0%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: hard prompts	1509	1423	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: expert	1526	1441	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English	1504	1429	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Vision: diagrams	1345	1251	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Vision: homework	1351	1257	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here

MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index60

Math benchmarks for Gemini 3.8 Flash and Inkling Small
Benchmark	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Inkling Small	Leader
OTIS Mock AIME	98.9%	90.0%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3	68.4%	46.3%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
FrontierMath, tier 4	22.0%	17.1%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
ProofBench	48.0%	6.0%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: math	1532	1459	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: mathematical work	1519	1441	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here

KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index91

Knowledge benchmarks for Gemini 3.8 Flash and Inkling Small
Benchmark	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Inkling Small	Leader
MMLU Pro	90.2%	85.6%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LegalBench (Vals AI)	87.0%	83.0%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
CorpFin (Vals AI)	Not measured	69.6%	Only Inkling Small measured
TaxEval (Vals AI)	74.5%	75.5%	Inkling Small
MortgageTax (Vals AI)	65.3%	62.3%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
MedCode (Vals AI)	48.1%	37.9%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
SimpleQA Verified	69.7%	19.1%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: science	1523	1428	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare	1508	1413	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: legal and government	1497	1415	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: business and finance	1479	1413	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here

Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared

Web design benchmarks for Gemini 3.8 Flash and Inkling Small
Benchmark	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Inkling Small	Leader
Design Arena: websites	1301	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Design Arena: UI components	1318	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Design Arena: game dev	1305	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Design Arena: data viz	1269	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Design Arena: 3D	1295	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Design Arena: all code categories	1304	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Design Arena: SVG	1295	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Design Arena: ASCII art	1264	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
LiveBench design	72.7%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured

GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index280

General benchmarks for Gemini 3.8 Flash and Inkling Small
Benchmark	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Inkling Small	Leader
Vals Index	56.0%	27.6%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LiveBench data analysis	54.0%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI)	65.3%	59.4%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
SAGE (Vals AI)	35.1%	32.7%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
MedScribe (Vals AI)	84.5%	84.1%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Vals Multimodal Index	Not measured	50.0%	Only Inkling Small measured
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)	84.0%	75.7%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
DTBench	95.7%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
LMCA	52.9%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Surface Evolver Bench	76.9%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Furniture assembly	31.7%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
LMArena Text	1499	1413	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: instruction following	1492	1399	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: creative writing	1488	1334	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Vision	1315	1237	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: English	1498	1421	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: non-English	1491	1401	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: Chinese	1553	1464	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: German	1501	1408	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: Japanese	1507	1401	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: Korean	1464	1367	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: French	1496	1435	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: Spanish	1487	1422	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: Russian	1514	1394	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: Polish	1497	1428	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: multi-turn	1503	1416	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: longer queries	1507	1402	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: writing and language	1494	1357	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: entertainment and media	1480	1352	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Vision: English	1318	1243	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Vision: Chinese	1416	1292	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Vision: reading text	1333	1243	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Vision: humor	1321	1207	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Vision: creative writing	1299	1205	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here

Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared

Image generation benchmarks for Gemini 3.8 Flash and Inkling Small
Benchmark	Gemini 3.8 Flash	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

Gemini 3.8 Flash$0.0029Fits in one request

Inkling Small$0.0010Fits in one request

Inkling Small costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Gemini 3.8 Flash$0.054Fits in one request

Inkling Small$0.026Fits in one request

Inkling Small costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Gemini 3.8 Flash$0.206Fits in one request

Inkling Small$0.102Fits in one request

Inkling Small 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.

Specifications of Gemini 3.8 Flash and Inkling Small
Specification	Google Gemini 3.8 Flash	Thinking Machines Inkling Small
Maker	Google	Thinking Machines
Weights	No public weights listed	Open weights
Released	September 2, 2026	July 30, 2026
Context window	1.05M	524K
Input $/Mtok	$0.825	$0.45
Output $/Mtok	$4.125	$1.20
Coding index	70.5	29.9
Independent measurements behind it	2	1
Cost per solved task	$2.74	$0.16
Source	OpenRouter listing	OpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Gemini 3.8 Flash better than Inkling Small for coding?

Pick Gemini 3.8 Flash for coding: it scores 70.5 on the Vibe Coding Index against 29.9 for Inkling Small. Pick Inkling Small when output tokens cost 3.4x less, or when a solved task costs $0.16 against $2.74.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.8 Flash or Inkling Small?

Gemini 3.8 Flash costs $0.825 per million input tokens and $4.125 per million output tokens; Inkling Small costs $0.45 and $1.20. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Gemini 3.8 Flash costs $2.74 and Inkling Small $0.16.

Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 3.8 Flash or Inkling Small?

Gemini 3.8 Flash, with 1.05M tokens against 524K.

How many benchmarks is the Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Inkling Small comparison based on?

82 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Gemini 3.8 Flash's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and Inkling Small's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

Decision reading

Which one for your work

Coding

Intelligence

Agentic work

Reasoning

Knowledge

Web design

General

Long documents

Everyday cost

Cost per solved task

At a glance

Benchmark by benchmark

What each workload costs

Chat turn

Repository review

Agent loop

Specification differences

Questions

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