Gemini 4 Carbon vs Inkling 2 Small

Gemini 4 Carbon leads Inkling 2 Small on coding, 86.6 to 48.9 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Inkling 2 Small costs 10.0x less per output token ($1.00 vs $10.00 per million). Updated November 14, 2026; 38 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Gemini 4 Carbon Replace Inkling 2 Small

Gemini 4 CarbonGoogle

Coding: 86.6
Overall: 88.3
Output $/M: $10.00

T Inkling 2 SmallThinking Machines

Coding: 48.9
Overall: 56.9
Output $/M: $1.00

vs boards won of 38 shared

Gemini 4 Carbon or Inkling 2 Small: which to pick

Pick Gemini 4 Carbon for coding: it scores 86.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 48.9 for Inkling 2 Small.

Pick Inkling 2 Small for output tokens 10.0x cheaper ($1.00 vs $10.00 per million) and work measured by Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) or Long context reasoning (AA-LCR), where it leads.

Model AGemini 4 CarbonGoogle86.6/1004 independent benchmarksNo cost per solved task Model BInkling 2 SmallThinking Machines48.9/1003 independent benchmarksNo cost per solved task

383513

Shared results: 38
Gemini 4 Carbon only: 35
Inkling 2 Small only: 13
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 4 Carbon
Gemini 4 Carbon scores 86.6 against 48.9.
4 and 3 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Gemini 4 Carbon
Gemini 4 Carbon leads, 60.0 against 30.6.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Gemini 4 Carbon has a Design Arena: websites result, 1319.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
Gemini 4 Carbon
Gemini 4 Carbon leads, 70.5% against 56.1%.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
No call
Both take 1.05M tokens.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Inkling 2 Small
Gemini 4 Carbon $0.0070, Inkling 2 Small $0.0008 per turn.
List prices

At a glance

Coding index: Gemini 4 Carbon 86.6 from 4 benchmarks, Inkling 2 Small 48.9 from 3 benchmarks.
Widest category: Math, 43.0 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
Widest single gap: Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI): Gemini 4 Carbon 63.1% against Inkling 2 Small 12.6%, 67.3 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price: Gemini 4 Carbon $10.00 against Inkling 2 Small $1.00 per million output tokens, 10.0x apart.
Context window: Both take 1.05M tokens.

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 4 Carbon	Inkling 2 Small
Coding	9	0
Intelligence	1	0
Agentic work	3	1
Reasoning	7	0
Math	1	0
Knowledge	3	0
General	12	1
All shared boards	36	2

CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index90

Coding benchmarks for Gemini 4 Carbon and Inkling 2 Small
Benchmark	Gemini 4 Carbon	Inkling 2 Small	Leader
LiveBench coding	91.0%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
LMArena WebDev	1768	1647	Gemini 4 Carbon
Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI)	63.1%	12.6%	Gemini 4 Carbon
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)	89.1%	81.5%	Gemini 4 Carbon
ProgramBench (Vals AI)	Not measured	0.5%	Only Inkling 2 Small measured
SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI)	Not measured	43.1%	Only Inkling 2 Small measured
CyberBench (Vals AI)	Not measured	72.7%	Only Inkling 2 Small measured
SciCode	Not measured	52.3%	Only Inkling 2 Small measured
Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Artificial Analysis run)	65.2%	13.1%	Gemini 4 Carbon
FrontierCode 2.0	40.6%	25.4%	Gemini 4 Carbon
FrontierSWE	61.2%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
ALE-Bench	2374.7	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
LMArena Text: coding	1564	1455	Gemini 4 Carbon
LMArena Text: software and IT	1552	1443	Gemini 4 Carbon
LMArena WebDev: React	1792	1660	Gemini 4 Carbon
LMArena WebDev: HTML	1770	1661	Gemini 4 Carbon
SWE-Bench Pro V2	Not measured	97.7%	Only Inkling 2 Small measured
CursorBench 4.0	60.4%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
Neither model has a result on the other 34 boards here

IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10

Intelligence benchmarks for Gemini 4 Carbon and Inkling 2 Small
Benchmark	Gemini 4 Carbon	Inkling 2 Small	Leader
AA Intelligence Index	60.0	30.6	Gemini 4 Carbon
Epoch Capabilities Index	169.8	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured

Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index31

Agentic work benchmarks for Gemini 4 Carbon and Inkling 2 Small
Benchmark	Gemini 4 Carbon	Inkling 2 Small	Leader
Design Arena: agents building mobile apps	1284	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
Design Arena: spreadsheets	1224	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
LiveBench research	92.5%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
LiveBench browser	80.0%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
LiveBench long agentic	72.7%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
SREBench (Vals AI)	Not measured	1.9%	Only Inkling 2 Small measured
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)	51.8%	38.9%	Gemini 4 Carbon
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)	55.8%	46.6%	Gemini 4 Carbon
Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI)	17.5%	21.7%	Inkling 2 Small
BioMysteryBench (Vals AI)	Not measured	70.0%	Only Inkling 2 Small measured
Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI)	Not measured	2.9%	Only Inkling 2 Small measured
Vals Science Index	Not measured	32.7%	Only Inkling 2 Small measured
APEX-Agents	84.2%	46.8%	Gemini 4 Carbon
Vending-Bench 2	$16,484	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
MCP Atlas	Not measured	85.4%	Only Inkling 2 Small measured
Neither model has a result on the other 29 boards here

ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index70

Reasoning benchmarks for Gemini 4 Carbon and Inkling 2 Small
Benchmark	Gemini 4 Carbon	Inkling 2 Small	Leader
LiveBench reasoning	90.6%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
MysteryMechanism (Vals AI)	Not measured	25.2%	Only Inkling 2 Small measured
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)	Not measured	44.1%	Only Inkling 2 Small measured
HLE-Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)	69.1%	28.7%	Gemini 4 Carbon
CritPt v2, hard subset (Artificial Analysis run)	69.0%	35.0%	Gemini 4 Carbon
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)	96.5%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
ARC-AGI	98.5%	96.5%	Gemini 4 Carbon
ARC-AGI-2	94.2%	81.7%	Gemini 4 Carbon
SimpleBench	92.6%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
Chess puzzles	78.0%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
Mystery game puzzles	73.0%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
EBR-bench	87.6%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts	1551	1421	Gemini 4 Carbon
LMArena Text: expert	1582	1478	Gemini 4 Carbon
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English	1545	1424	Gemini 4 Carbon
Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here

MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10

Math benchmarks for Gemini 4 Carbon and Inkling 2 Small
Benchmark	Gemini 4 Carbon	Inkling 2 Small	Leader
OTIS Mock AIME	100.0%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3	90.5%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
FrontierMath, tier 4	95.1%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
LMArena Text: mathematical work	1538	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
MathArena	85.4%	42.4%	Gemini 4 Carbon
Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here

KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30

Knowledge benchmarks for Gemini 4 Carbon and Inkling 2 Small
Benchmark	Gemini 4 Carbon	Inkling 2 Small	Leader
AA-Omniscience	53.5	16.1	Gemini 4 Carbon
SimpleQA Verified	77.7%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
LMArena Text: science	1535	1409	Gemini 4 Carbon
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare	1525	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
LMArena Text: legal and government	1542	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
LMArena Text: business and finance	1520	1415	Gemini 4 Carbon
FACTS Benchmark Suite	78.4%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
PRBench Legal	53.3%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here

Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared

Web design benchmarks for Gemini 4 Carbon and Inkling 2 Small
Benchmark	Gemini 4 Carbon	Inkling 2 Small	Leader
Design Arena: websites	1319	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
Design Arena: UI components	1357	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
Design Arena: game dev	1326	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
Design Arena: 3D	1434	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
Design Arena: all code categories	1348	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
LiveBench design	80.2%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here

GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index121

General benchmarks for Gemini 4 Carbon and Inkling 2 Small
Benchmark	Gemini 4 Carbon	Inkling 2 Small	Leader
Vals Index	70.5%	56.1%	Gemini 4 Carbon
LiveBench data analysis	86.5%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
SAGE (Vals AI)	Not measured	88.6%	Only Inkling 2 Small measured
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)	79.3%	83.3%	Inkling 2 Small
GDPval-AA	1733	1630	Gemini 4 Carbon
Furniture assembly	77.5%	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
LMArena Text	1538	1403	Gemini 4 Carbon
LMArena Text: instruction following	1539	1408	Gemini 4 Carbon
LMArena Text: creative writing	1533	1348	Gemini 4 Carbon
LMArena Text: English	1530	1418	Gemini 4 Carbon
LMArena Text: non-English	1534	1390	Gemini 4 Carbon
LMArena Text: Chinese	1613	Not measured	Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured
LMArena Text: Russian	1560	1377	Gemini 4 Carbon
LMArena Text: multi-turn	1569	1408	Gemini 4 Carbon
LMArena Text: longer queries	1549	1403	Gemini 4 Carbon
LMArena Text: writing and language	1542	1381	Gemini 4 Carbon
LMArena Text: entertainment and media	1527	1359	Gemini 4 Carbon
Neither model has a result on the other 32 boards here

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

Image generation benchmarks for Gemini 4 Carbon and Inkling 2 Small
Benchmark	Gemini 4 Carbon	Inkling 2 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 4 Carbon$0.0070Fits in one request

Inkling 2 Small$0.0008Fits in one request

Inkling 2 Small costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Gemini 4 Carbon$0.130Fits in one request

Inkling 2 Small$0.018Fits in one request

Inkling 2 Small costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Gemini 4 Carbon$0.500Fits in one request

Inkling 2 Small$0.070Fits in one request

Inkling 2 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 4 Carbon and Inkling 2 Small
Specification	Google Gemini 4 Carbon	Thinking Machines Inkling 2 Small
Maker	Google	Thinking Machines
Weights	No public weights listed	Open weights
Released	November 10, 2026	November 9, 2026
Context window	1.05M	1.05M
Input $/Mtok	$2.00	$0.30
Output $/Mtok	$10.00	$1.00
Coding index	86.6	48.9
Independent measurements behind it	4	3
Cost per solved task	Not computable	Not computable
Source	OpenRouter listing	OpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Gemini 4 Carbon better than Inkling 2 Small for coding?

Pick Gemini 4 Carbon for coding: it scores 86.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 48.9 for Inkling 2 Small. Pick Inkling 2 Small for output tokens 10.0x cheaper ($1.00 vs $10.00 per million) and work measured by Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) or Long context reasoning (AA-LCR), where it leads.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 4 Carbon or Inkling 2 Small?

Gemini 4 Carbon costs $2.00 per million input tokens and $10.00 per million output tokens; Inkling 2 Small costs $0.30 and $1.00. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.

Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 4 Carbon or Inkling 2 Small?

Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.

How many benchmarks is the Gemini 4 Carbon vs Inkling 2 Small comparison based on?

38 benchmarks have a result for both models as of November 14, 2026. Gemini 4 Carbon's coding index rests on 4 independent benchmarks and Inkling 2 Small's on 3. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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<p style="font:13px/1.4 sans-serif;margin:6px 0 0">Source: <a href="https://llmbenchmark.ai/compare/gemini-4-carbon-vs-thinkingmachines-inkling-2-small">LLMBenchmark.ai, Gemini 4 Carbon vs Inkling 2 Small</a></p>

Gemini 4 Carbon or Inkling 2 Small: which to pick

Which one for your work

Coding

Intelligence

Web design

General

Long documents

Everyday cost

At a glance

Benchmark by benchmark

What each workload costs

Chat turn

Repository review

Agent loop

Specification differences

Questions

Compare next