Ling 3.0 Flash vs Inkling Small
Ling 3.0 Flash leads Inkling Small on coding, 29.6 to 27.3 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Ling 3.0 Flash costs 9.9x less per output token ($0.1215 vs $1.20 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 24 benchmarks have a result for both.
Ling 3.0 Flash or Inkling Small: which to pick
Pick Ling 3.0 Flash for coding: it scores 29.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 27.3 for Inkling Small, though on 2 benchmarks against 4.
Pick Inkling Small for a larger context window (524K against 262K tokens) and work measured by AA Coding Index or LiveCodeBench (Vals AI), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 24
- Ling 3.0 Flash only
- 0
- Inkling Small only
- 60
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 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
Ling 3.0 Flash
Ling 3.0 Flash scores 29.6 against 27.3.
2 and 4 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Inkling Small
Inkling Small leads, 25.7 against 20.1.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Inkling Small
Inkling Small leads, 23.5 against 19.3.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Ling 3.0 Flash
Ling 3.0 Flash leads, 84.8% against 83.6%.
Same board, both measured
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Inkling Small
Inkling Small leads, 85.6% against 82.0%.
Same board, both measured
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Inkling Small has a Vals Index result, 27.6%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Inkling Small
Inkling Small takes 524K tokens against 262K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Ling 3.0 Flash
Ling 3.0 Flash $0.0001, Inkling Small $0.0010 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
Ling 3.0 Flash
Ling 3.0 Flash $0.05, Inkling Small $0.16.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- Ling 3.0 Flash 29.6 from 2 benchmarks, Inkling Small 27.3 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 11.8 points apart on average over 4 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Legal Research Bench (Vals AI): Ling 3.0 Flash 0.0% against Inkling Small 25.5%, 25.5 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Ling 3.0 Flash $0.1215 against Inkling Small $1.20 per million output tokens, 9.9x apart.
- Context window
- Ling 3.0 Flash takes 262K 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 | Ling 3.0 Flash | Bars | Inkling Small | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 8 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 4 | ||
| Reasoning | 1 | 2 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 5 | ||
| General | 0 | 3 | ||
| All shared boards | 1 | 23 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index08
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1409 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| AA Coding Index | 50.6 | 52.9 | Inkling Small |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 84.0% | 85.9% | Inkling Small |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 65.2% | 82.2% | Inkling Small |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 2.9% | 19.1% | Inkling Small |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 0.0% | 13.7% | Inkling Small |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.5% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 9.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 50.2% | 55.1% | Inkling Small |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | 27.9% | 33.6% | Inkling Small |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| SciCode | 42.0% | 49.7% | Inkling Small |
| 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 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 21 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 20.1 | 25.7 | Inkling Small |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 150.3 | Only Inkling Small measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 19.3 | 23.5 | Inkling Small |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 30.3% | 41.3% | Inkling Small |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 15.4% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | 25.5% | Inkling Small |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.9% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 25.0% | 31.8% | Inkling Small |
| Neither model has a result on the other 35 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 84.8% | 83.6% | Ling 3.0 Flash |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 85.5% | 89.5% | Inkling Small |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 23.7% | 33.3% | Inkling Small |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 88.5% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 84.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 40.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 6.0% | Only Inkling Small 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 10 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 90.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 46.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 17.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 6.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| 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 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 82.0% | 85.6% | Inkling Small |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 79.7% | 83.0% | Inkling Small |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 61.9% | 69.6% | Inkling Small |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 70.7% | 75.5% | Inkling Small |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 62.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 32.3% | 37.9% | Inkling Small |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 19.1% | Only Inkling Small 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 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
Web designNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 9 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 27.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 50.7% | 59.4% | Inkling Small |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 32.7% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 80.9% | 84.1% | Inkling Small |
| Vals Multimodal Index | Not measured | 50.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 73.0% | 75.7% | Inkling Small |
| 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 17 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash | 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
Ling 3.0 Flash costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Ling 3.0 Flash costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Ling 3.0 Flash 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 | Thinking Machines Inkling Small |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | inclusionAI | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | July 23, 2026 | July 30, 2026 |
| Context window | 262K | 524K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.0405 | $0.45 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.1215 | $1.20 |
| Coding index | 29.6 | 27.3 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.05 | $0.16 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Ling 3.0 Flash better than Inkling Small for coding?
Pick Ling 3.0 Flash for coding: it scores 29.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 27.3 for Inkling Small, though on 2 benchmarks against 4. Pick Inkling Small for a larger context window (524K against 262K tokens) and work measured by AA Coding Index or LiveCodeBench (Vals AI), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Ling 3.0 Flash or Inkling Small?
Ling 3.0 Flash costs $0.0405 per million input tokens and $0.1215 per million output tokens; Inkling Small costs $0.45 and $1.20. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Ling 3.0 Flash costs $0.05 and Inkling Small $0.16.
Which has the bigger context window, Ling 3.0 Flash or Inkling Small?
Inkling Small, with 524K tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks is the Ling 3.0 Flash vs Inkling Small comparison based on?
24 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Ling 3.0 Flash'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.