Grok 4.3 vs Inkling 2 Small
Inkling 2 Small leads Grok 4.3 on coding, 48.9 to 37.4 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Inkling 2 Small costs 2.5x less per output token ($1.00 vs $2.50 per million). Updated November 14, 2026; 29 benchmarks have a result for both.
Grok 4.3 or Inkling 2 Small: which to pick
Pick Inkling 2 Small for coding: it scores 48.9 on the Vibe Coding Index against 37.4 for Grok 4.3.
Pick Grok 4.3 for work measured by LMArena Text: creative writing or LMArena Text: Russian, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 29
- Grok 4.3 only
- 78
- Inkling 2 Small only
- 22
- 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
Inkling 2 Small
Inkling 2 Small scores 48.9 against 37.4.
3 benchmarks behind each score
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only Inkling 2 Small has a AA Intelligence Index result, 30.6.
Directional only
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Grok 4.3 has a AA Agentic Index result, 15.5.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Grok 4.3 has a GPQA Diamond result, 91.4%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Grok 4.3 has a MMLU Pro result, 85.8%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Grok 4.3 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1186.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Inkling 2 Small has a Vals Index result, 56.1%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Inkling 2 Small
Inkling 2 Small takes 1.05M tokens against 1M.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Inkling 2 Small
Grok 4.3 $0.0025, Inkling 2 Small $0.0008 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Grok 4.3 has the number, $0.31.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Grok 4.3 37.4 from 3 benchmarks, Inkling 2 Small 48.9 from 3 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 32.0 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): Grok 4.3 19.4% against Inkling 2 Small 81.5%, 62.1 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Grok 4.3 $2.50 against Inkling 2 Small $1.00 per million output tokens, 2.5x apart.
- Context window
- Grok 4.3 takes 1M tokens, Inkling 2 Small 1.05M.
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 | Grok 4.3 | Bars | Inkling 2 Small | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 9 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 2 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 4 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 2 | ||
| General | 4 | 8 | ||
| All shared boards | 4 | 25 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index09
| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1357 | 1647 | Inkling 2 Small |
| AA Coding Index | 42.2 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 84.5% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 71.4% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 12.6% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 19.4% | 81.5% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 6.8% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | 0.5% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 42.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | Not measured | 43.1% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | 40.6% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 72.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| SciCode | 48.3% | 52.3% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 37.9% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Artificial Analysis run) | 0.0% | 13.1% | Inkling 2 Small |
| FrontierCode 2.0 | Not measured | 25.4% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| WeirdML | 49.9% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 944.2 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1414 | 1455 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1416 | 1443 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1352 | 1660 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1367 | 1661 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1376 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| SWE-Bench Pro V2 | Not measured | 97.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 28 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | 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 index02
| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 15.5 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1101 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 982 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1050 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 956 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 917 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building games | 951 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Design Arena: HTML slides | 903 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 981 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 930 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 1.9% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 37.7% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 6.2% | 38.9% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 15.4% | 46.6% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 21.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 18.4% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| 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 |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 97.7% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 46.8% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $35 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Search | 1166 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| MCP Atlas | Not measured | 85.4% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 20 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 91.4% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | Not measured | 25.2% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 83.1% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 90.1% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 37.2% | 44.1% | Inkling 2 Small |
| HLE-Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 28.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| CritPt v2, hard subset (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 35.0% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 88.8% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 96.5% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 81.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Chess puzzles | 18.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1396 | 1421 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1386 | 1478 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1401 | 1424 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1241 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1242 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 93.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 42.8% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 14.6% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| ProofBench | 11.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1387 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1396 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| MathArena | Not measured | 42.4% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 85.8% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 84.5% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 79.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 68.5% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 70.8% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 48.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 38.1% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| AA-Omniscience | Not measured | 16.1 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 33.2% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| GeoBench | 56.0% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1399 | 1409 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1384 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1386 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1381 | 1415 | Inkling 2 Small |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1186 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1185 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1161 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1176 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1104 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1175 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1071 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1121 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index48
| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 56.1% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 51.7% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 88.6% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 74.4% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 43.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| IFBench | 83.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 75.0% | 83.3% | Inkling 2 Small |
| GDPval-AA | 949 | 1630 | Inkling 2 Small |
| DTBench | 90.7% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMCA | 38.3% | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1397 | 1403 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1366 | 1408 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1380 | 1348 | Grok 4.3 |
| LMArena Vision | 1229 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1404 | 1418 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1386 | 1390 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1422 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1397 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1378 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1352 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1412 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1399 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1398 | 1377 | Grok 4.3 |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1398 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1407 | 1408 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1393 | 1403 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1385 | 1381 | Grok 4.3 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1370 | 1359 | Grok 4.3 |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1236 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1257 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1234 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1223 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | 1220 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1235 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 measured |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1065 | Not measured | Only Grok 4.3 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 | Grok 4.3 | 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 | SpaceXAI Grok 4.3 | Thinking Machines Inkling 2 Small |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | xAI | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | April 30, 2026 | November 9, 2026 |
| Context window | 1M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $1.25 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.50 | $1.00 |
| Coding index | 37.4 | 48.9 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 3 | 3 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.31 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Grok 4.3 better than Inkling 2 Small for coding?
Pick Inkling 2 Small for coding: it scores 48.9 on the Vibe Coding Index against 37.4 for Grok 4.3. Pick Grok 4.3 for work measured by LMArena Text: creative writing or LMArena Text: Russian, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Grok 4.3 or Inkling 2 Small?
Grok 4.3 costs $1.25 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; Inkling 2 Small costs $0.30 and $1.00. Cost per solved task is known for Grok 4.3 only.
Which has the bigger context window, Grok 4.3 or Inkling 2 Small?
Inkling 2 Small, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.
How many benchmarks is the Grok 4.3 vs Inkling 2 Small comparison based on?
29 benchmarks have a result for both models as of November 14, 2026. Grok 4.3's coding index rests on 3 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.