Ling 3.0 Flash VL vs Inkling
Inkling leads Ling 3.0 Flash VL on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 25.0 to 24.6, and Ling 3.0 Flash VL costs 22.5x less per output token ($0.18 vs $4.05 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 7 benchmarks have a result for both.
Ling 3.0 Flash VL or Inkling: which to pick
Only Inkling has a coding score, 31.5 on the Vibe Coding Index; Ling 3.0 Flash VL has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Ling 3.0 Flash VL for output tokens 22.5x cheaper ($0.18 vs $4.05 per million) and work measured by AA Coding Index or AA Agentic Index, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 7
- Ling 3.0 Flash VL only
- 0
- Inkling only
- 99
- 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
No call
Only Inkling has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Inkling
Inkling leads, 25.0 against 24.6.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Ling 3.0 Flash VL
Ling 3.0 Flash VL leads, 28.7 against 22.5.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Inkling has a GPQA Diamond result, 87.1%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Inkling has a MMLU Pro result, 86.3%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Inkling has a Design Arena: websites result, 1224.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Inkling has a Vals Index result, 29.0%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Inkling
Inkling takes 524K tokens against 131K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Ling 3.0 Flash VL
Ling 3.0 Flash VL $0.0001, Inkling $0.0030 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Inkling has the number, $0.76.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Ling 3.0 Flash VL not benchmarked, Inkling 31.5 from 6 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 6.2 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run): Ling 3.0 Flash VL 22.0% against Inkling 31.9%, 9.9 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Ling 3.0 Flash VL $0.18 against Inkling $4.05 per million output tokens, 22.5x apart.
- Context window
- Ling 3.0 Flash VL takes 131K tokens, Inkling 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 | Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Bars | Inkling | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 1 | 1 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 2 | ||
| General | 1 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 3 | 4 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index11
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 64.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1414 | Only Inkling measured |
| AA Coding Index | 57.0 | 52.1 | Ling 3.0 Flash VL |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 77.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 19.2% | Only Inkling measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 11.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 14.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 47.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 7.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 26.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 66.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| SciCode | 44.2% | 47.0% | Inkling |
| FrontierCode | Not measured | 14.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierSWE | Not measured | 4.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 32.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 946.0 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1466 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1465 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1404 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1399 | Only Inkling measured |
| SWE-Bench Pro V2 | Not measured | 89.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 24.6 | 25.0 | Inkling |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 148.4 | Only Inkling measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 28.7 | 22.5 | Ling 3.0 Flash VL |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | Not measured | 1196 | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench research | Not measured | 59.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench browser | Not measured | 16.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | Not measured | 14.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 46.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 15.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 28.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 3.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 38.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 33.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| MCP Atlas | Not measured | 76.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 29 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 87.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 78.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | Not measured | 78.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 86.2% | 87.2% | Inkling |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 22.0% | 31.9% | Inkling |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 88.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 79.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 36.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 50.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 21.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1451 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1466 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1448 | Only Inkling measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Scale run) | Not measured | 11.2% | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 88.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 33.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 4.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1479 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1460 | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 86.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 83.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 68.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 75.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 41.2% | Only Inkling measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 40.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1455 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1447 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1448 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1438 | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 1224 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1199 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 1165 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1157 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | Not measured | 1160 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 1205 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | Not measured | 1108 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | Not measured | 1089 | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 58.3% | Only Inkling measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 29.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | Not measured | 72.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 58.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 36.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | Not measured | 49.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 78.3% | 77.3% | Ling 3.0 Flash VL |
| DTBench | Not measured | 87.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 37.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1442 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1425 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1390 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1442 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1434 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1493 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1445 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1429 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1403 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1455 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1449 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1430 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1450 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1437 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1435 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1404 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1394 | Only Inkling measured |
| EQ-Bench 4 | Not measured | 1226 | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 21 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Inkling | 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
Ling 3.0 Flash VL costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Ling 3.0 Flash VL costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Ling 3.0 Flash VL 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 | inclusionAI Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Thinking Machines Inkling |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | inclusionAI | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | September 10, 2026 | July 17, 2026 |
| Context window | 131K | 524K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.06 | $1.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.18 | $4.05 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | 31.5 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 6 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $0.76 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Ling 3.0 Flash VL better than Inkling for coding?
Only Inkling has a coding score, 31.5 on the Vibe Coding Index; Ling 3.0 Flash VL has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Ling 3.0 Flash VL for output tokens 22.5x cheaper ($0.18 vs $4.05 per million) and work measured by AA Coding Index or AA Agentic Index, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Ling 3.0 Flash VL or Inkling?
Ling 3.0 Flash VL costs $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.18 per million output tokens; Inkling costs $1.00 and $4.05. Cost per solved task is known for Inkling only.
Which has the bigger context window, Ling 3.0 Flash VL or Inkling?
Inkling, with 524K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks is the Ling 3.0 Flash VL vs Inkling comparison based on?
7 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Ling 3.0 Flash VL's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Inkling's on 6. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.