Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Inkling Small
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads Inkling Small on coding, 43.7 to 27.3 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Inkling Small costs 2.5x less per output token ($1.20 vs $3.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 33 benchmarks have a result for both.
Gemini 3 Flash Preview or Inkling Small: which to pick
Pick Gemini 3 Flash Preview for coding: it scores 43.7 on the Vibe Coding Index against 27.3 for Inkling Small, though on 2 benchmarks against 4.
Pick Inkling Small for output tokens 2.5x cheaper ($1.20 vs $3.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.16 against $0.37).
- Shared results
- 33
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview only
- 38
- Inkling Small only
- 51
- 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
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview scores 43.7 against 27.3.
2 and 4 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 26.3 against 25.7.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Inkling Small has a AA Agentic Index result, 23.5.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 87.9% against 83.6%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
No call
Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview has a AIME result, 95.6%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 88.6% against 85.6%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview has a Design Arena: websites result, 1196.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Inkling Small has a Vals Index result, 27.6%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview takes 1.05M tokens against 524K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Inkling Small
Gemini 3 Flash Preview $0.0020, Inkling Small $0.0010 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
Inkling Small
Gemini 3 Flash Preview $0.37, Inkling Small $0.16.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview 43.7 from 2 benchmarks, Inkling Small 27.3 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Knowledge, 12.0 points apart on average over 7 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- SimpleQA Verified: Gemini 3 Flash Preview 66.8% against Inkling Small 19.1%, 47.7 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview $3.00 against Inkling Small $1.20 per million output tokens, 2.5x apart.
- Context window
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview 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.
| Category | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Bars | Inkling Small | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 1 | 5 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 1 | 3 | ||
| Reasoning | 6 | 1 | ||
| Math | 3 | 0 | 1 tie | |
| Knowledge | 5 | 2 | ||
| General | 3 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 20 | 12 | 1 tie |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index15
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 75.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1409 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 52.9 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 85.6% | 85.9% | Inkling Small |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 75.0% | 82.2% | Inkling Small |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 20.2% | 19.1% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 6.4% | 13.7% | Inkling Small |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | 0.5% | Inkling Small |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 9.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 53.9% | 55.1% | Inkling Small |
| 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) | 90.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 49.7% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 38.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench | 64.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| GSO-Bench | 9.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| WeirdML | 61.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| ALE-Bench | 1367.2 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1450 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1447 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| 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 |
| SciCode | 12.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 26.3 | 25.7 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 150.3 | Only Inkling Small measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index13
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 23.5 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1111 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1063 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1090 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1051 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 1161 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1036 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 42.5% | 41.3% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 11.8% | 15.4% | Inkling Small |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 18.3% | 25.5% | Inkling Small |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.9% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 26.0% | 31.8% | Inkling Small |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 80.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| BALROG | 48.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| DeepResearch Bench | 49.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $3,635 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 25 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index61
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 87.9% | 83.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 87.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 89.8% | 89.5% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 36.6% | 33.3% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 89.4% | 88.5% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| ARC-AGI | 84.7% | 84.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 33.6% | 40.1% | Inkling Small |
| SimpleBench | 61.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Chess puzzles | 39.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 26.0% | 6.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| VPCT | 72.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1423 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1441 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1429 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1251 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1257 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 95.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 93.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| AA Math Index | 97.0 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 97.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 95.6% | 90.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 51.2% | 46.3% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 17.1% | 17.1% | Tie |
| ProofBench | 15.0% | 6.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1459 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1441 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index52
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 88.6% | 85.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 86.9% | 83.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 55.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 66.4% | 69.6% | Inkling Small |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 73.9% | 75.5% | Inkling Small |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.7% | 62.3% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 95.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 55.9% | 37.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 89.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 66.8% | 19.1% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| GeoBench | 88.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1428 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1413 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1415 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1413 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 63.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1196 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1166 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1183 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1189 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index31
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | 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) | 51.8% | 32.7% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 69.9% | 84.1% | Inkling Small |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 52.2% | 50.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| IFBench | 78.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 78.0% | 75.7% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| DTBench | 89.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMCA | 43.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1413 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1399 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1334 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1237 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1421 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1401 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| 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 | Not measured | 1394 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1428 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1416 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1402 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1357 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1352 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| 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 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | 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
Inkling Small costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Inkling Small costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
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.
| Specification | Google Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Thinking Machines Inkling Small |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Thinking Machines | |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | December 17, 2025 | July 30, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 524K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.50 | $0.45 |
| Output $/Mtok | $3.00 | $1.20 |
| Coding index | 43.7 | 27.3 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.37 | $0.16 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemini 3 Flash Preview better than Inkling Small for coding?
Pick Gemini 3 Flash Preview for coding: it scores 43.7 on the Vibe Coding Index against 27.3 for Inkling Small, though on 2 benchmarks against 4. Pick Inkling Small for output tokens 2.5x cheaper ($1.20 vs $3.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.16 against $0.37).
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Flash Preview or Inkling Small?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs $0.50 per million input tokens and $3.00 per million output tokens; Inkling Small costs $0.45 and $1.20. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs $0.37 and Inkling Small $0.16.
Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 3 Flash Preview or Inkling Small?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview, with 1.05M tokens against 524K.
How many benchmarks is the Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Inkling Small comparison based on?
33 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Gemini 3 Flash Preview's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and Inkling Small's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.