Gemini 4 Hydrogen vs Inkling 2 Small
Gemini 4 Hydrogen leads Inkling 2 Small on coding, 77.9 to 48.9 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Inkling 2 Small costs 7.5x less per output token ($1.00 vs $7.50 per million). Updated November 14, 2026; 31 benchmarks have a result for both.
Gemini 4 Hydrogen or Inkling 2 Small: which to pick
Pick Gemini 4 Hydrogen for coding: it scores 77.9 on the Vibe Coding Index against 48.9 for Inkling 2 Small.
Pick Inkling 2 Small for output tokens 7.5x cheaper ($1.00 vs $7.50 per million) and work measured by Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 31
- Gemini 4 Hydrogen only
- 19
- Inkling 2 Small only
- 20
- Like-for-like categories
- 5 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 Hydrogen
Gemini 4 Hydrogen scores 77.9 against 48.9.
4 and 3 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only Inkling 2 Small has a AA Intelligence Index result, 30.6.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen has a Design Arena: websites result, 1320.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
Gemini 4 Hydrogen
Gemini 4 Hydrogen leads, 68.5% 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 Hydrogen $0.0053, Inkling 2 Small $0.0008 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Gemini 4 Hydrogen 77.9 from 4 benchmarks, Inkling 2 Small 48.9 from 3 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Reasoning, 21.2 points apart on average over 5 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI): Gemini 4 Hydrogen 54.0% against Inkling 2 Small 12.6%, 55.2 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Gemini 4 Hydrogen $7.50 against Inkling 2 Small $1.00 per million output tokens, 7.5x 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.
| Category | Gemini 4 Hydrogen | Bars | Inkling 2 Small | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 9 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 2 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 5 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 3 | 0 | ||
| General | 11 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 30 | 1 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index90
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Hydrogen | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 78.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1704 | 1647 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 54.0% | 12.6% | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 87.8% | 81.5% | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| 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) | 54.0% | 13.1% | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| FrontierCode 2.0 | 39.0% | 25.4% | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1516 | 1455 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1513 | 1443 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1724 | 1660 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1743 | 1661 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| SWE-Bench Pro V2 | Not measured | 97.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| CursorBench 4.0 | 57.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 36 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Hydrogen | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | Not measured | 30.6 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index21
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Hydrogen | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench research | 86.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| LiveBench browser | 77.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 61.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 1.9% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 52.3% | 38.9% | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 53.8% | 46.6% | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 11.3% | 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 | Not measured | 46.8% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| MCP Atlas | Not measured | 85.4% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 32 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index50
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Hydrogen | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | 88.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen 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) | 58.8% | 28.7% | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| CritPt v2, hard subset (Artificial Analysis run) | 66.0% | 35.0% | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 96.5% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 81.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1520 | 1421 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1558 | 1478 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1514 | 1424 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index3 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Hydrogen | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text: math | 1507 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1534 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| MathArena | Not measured | 42.4% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Hydrogen | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA-Omniscience | 46.3 | 16.1 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| LMArena Text: science | 1519 | 1409 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1488 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1532 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1486 | 1415 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Hydrogen | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1320 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1369 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1415 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1333 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| LiveBench design | 77.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index110
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Hydrogen | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 68.5% | 56.1% | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| LiveBench data analysis | 83.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 88.6% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 83.3% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| GDPval-AA | Not measured | 1630 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text | 1502 | 1403 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1519 | 1408 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1509 | 1348 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| LMArena Text: English | 1499 | 1418 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1495 | 1390 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1631 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1512 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1494 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1492 | 1377 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1485 | 1408 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1524 | 1403 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1500 | 1381 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1503 | 1359 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| Neither model has a result on the other 31 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Hydrogen | 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
Inkling 2 Small costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Inkling 2 Small costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
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.
| Specification | Google Gemini 4 Hydrogen | Thinking Machines Inkling 2 Small |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Thinking Machines | |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | November 12, 2026 | November 9, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $1.50 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $7.50 | $1.00 |
| Coding index | 77.9 | 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 Hydrogen better than Inkling 2 Small for coding?
Pick Gemini 4 Hydrogen for coding: it scores 77.9 on the Vibe Coding Index against 48.9 for Inkling 2 Small. Pick Inkling 2 Small for output tokens 7.5x cheaper ($1.00 vs $7.50 per million) and work measured by Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 4 Hydrogen or Inkling 2 Small?
Gemini 4 Hydrogen costs $1.50 per million input tokens and $7.50 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 Hydrogen or Inkling 2 Small?
Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Gemini 4 Hydrogen vs Inkling 2 Small comparison based on?
31 benchmarks have a result for both models as of November 14, 2026. Gemini 4 Hydrogen'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.