MiniMax M3 vs Inkling Small
Updated October 21, 2026. 75 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
Decision reading
Pick MiniMax M3 for coding: it scores 57.8 on the Vibe Coding Index against 29.9 for Inkling Small.
Pick Inkling Small when a solved task costs $0.16 against $0.56, or when what matters is LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) or SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 75
- MiniMax M3 only
- 41
- Inkling Small only
- 9
- Like-for-like categories
- 7 of 9
Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results only one model has describe coverage, not superiority.
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, four public coding benchmarks
MiniMax M3
MiniMax M3 scores 57.8 against 29.9.
2 and 1 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
MiniMax M3
MiniMax M3 leads, 29.2 against 25.7.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
MiniMax M3
MiniMax M3 leads, 29.5 against 23.5.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
MiniMax M3
MiniMax M3 leads, 92.7% against 83.6%.
Same board, both measured
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Inkling Small
Inkling Small leads, 85.6% against 84.2%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only MiniMax M3 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1257.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Inkling Small has a Vals Index result, 27.6%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
MiniMax M3
MiniMax M3 takes 1.05M tokens against 524K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
MiniMax M3
MiniMax M3 $0.0009, Inkling Small $0.0010 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
Inkling Small
MiniMax M3 $0.56, Inkling Small $0.16.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- MiniMax M3 57.8 from 2 benchmarks, Inkling Small 29.9 from 1 benchmark.
- Widest category
- Math, 9.3 points apart on average over 4 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): MiniMax M3 47.6% against Inkling Small 19.1%, 28.5 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Both cost $1.20 per million output tokens.
- Context window
- MiniMax M3 takes 1.05M 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 | MiniMax M3 | Bars | Inkling Small | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 12 | 4 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 5 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 10 | 0 | ||
| Math | 2 | 2 | ||
| Knowledge | 7 | 3 | ||
| General | 26 | 2 | ||
| All shared boards | 63 | 12 |
CodingLike-for-likeFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index124
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 70.9% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1482 | 1409 | MiniMax M3 |
| AA Coding Index | 58.6 | 52.9 | MiniMax M3 |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 82.2% | 85.9% | Inkling Small |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 75.0% | 82.2% | Inkling Small |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 1.0% | 0.0% | MiniMax M3 |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 47.6% | 19.1% | MiniMax M3 |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 19.9% | 13.7% | MiniMax M3 |
| 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) | 53.6% | 55.1% | Inkling Small |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | 33.3% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | 9.2% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | 51.5% | 33.6% | MiniMax M3 |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 65.0% | 64.1% | MiniMax M3 |
| SciCode | 47.1% | 49.7% | Inkling Small |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 42.4% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| FrontierCode | 14.7% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 640.0 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1470 | 1450 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1466 | 1447 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1478 | 1399 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1455 | 1398 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1470 | 1410 | MiniMax M3 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 29.2 | 25.7 | MiniMax M3 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.9 | 150.3 | Inkling Small |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index50
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 29.5 | 23.5 | MiniMax M3 |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1200 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1197 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1169 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1164 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building games | 1158 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: HTML slides | 1180 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1205 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 1021 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LiveBench research | 68.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LiveBench browser | 8.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 12.4% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 48.3% | 41.3% | MiniMax M3 |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 20.6% | 15.4% | MiniMax M3 |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 29.8% | 25.5% | MiniMax M3 |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.9% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 47.8% | 31.8% | MiniMax M3 |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 88.9% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| APEX-Agents | 37.7% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| OSWorld 2.0 | 4.6% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $2,158 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 18 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index100
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 92.7% | 83.6% | MiniMax M3 |
| LiveBench reasoning | 74.5% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 81.2% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 92.9% | 89.5% | MiniMax M3 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 39.0% | 33.3% | MiniMax M3 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 90.9% | 88.5% | MiniMax M3 |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 84.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 40.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| SimpleBench | 45.8% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Chess puzzles | 13.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 8.0% | 6.0% | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1447 | 1423 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1461 | 1441 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1455 | 1429 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1266 | 1251 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1268 | 1257 | MiniMax M3 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index22
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 71.1% | 90.0% | Inkling Small |
| 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 | 18.0% | 6.0% | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: math | 1429 | 1459 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1448 | 1441 | MiniMax M3 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index73
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 84.2% | 85.6% | Inkling Small |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 85.4% | 83.0% | MiniMax M3 |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 68.1% | 69.6% | Inkling Small |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 72.7% | 75.5% | Inkling Small |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.4% | 62.3% | MiniMax M3 |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 46.3% | 37.9% | MiniMax M3 |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 19.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1452 | 1428 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1441 | 1413 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1437 | 1415 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1434 | 1413 | MiniMax M3 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1257 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1246 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1210 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1235 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1209 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1247 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1161 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1161 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LiveBench design | 66.2% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index262
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 27.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | 76.2% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 64.1% | 59.4% | MiniMax M3 |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 50.6% | 32.7% | MiniMax M3 |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 87.3% | 84.1% | MiniMax M3 |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 60.0% | 50.0% | MiniMax M3 |
| IFBench | 82.9% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 83.0% | 75.7% | MiniMax M3 |
| DTBench | 78.9% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMCA | 33.7% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 55.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1433 | 1413 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1433 | 1399 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1404 | 1334 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Vision | 1251 | 1237 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: English | 1443 | 1421 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1420 | 1401 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1466 | 1464 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: German | 1428 | 1408 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1380 | 1401 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1373 | 1367 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: French | 1444 | 1435 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1433 | 1422 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1426 | 1394 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1423 | 1428 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1443 | 1416 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1446 | 1402 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1419 | 1357 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1403 | 1352 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1263 | 1243 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1311 | 1292 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1259 | 1243 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1235 | 1207 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | 1197 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1234 | 1205 | MiniMax M3 |
| LMArena Document | 1435 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | 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
MiniMax M3 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
MiniMax M3 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
MiniMax M3 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 | MiniMax M3 | Thinking Machines Inkling Small |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | MiniMax | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | May 31, 2026 | July 30, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 524K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.30 | $0.45 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.20 | $1.20 |
| Coding index | 57.8 | 29.9 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.56 | $0.16 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is MiniMax M3 better than Inkling Small for coding?
Pick MiniMax M3 for coding: it scores 57.8 on the Vibe Coding Index against 29.9 for Inkling Small. Pick Inkling Small when a solved task costs $0.16 against $0.56, or when what matters is LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) or SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax M3 or Inkling Small?
MiniMax M3 costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Inkling Small costs $0.45 and $1.20. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, MiniMax M3 costs $0.56 and Inkling Small $0.16.
Which has the bigger context window, MiniMax M3 or Inkling Small?
MiniMax M3, with 1.05M tokens against 524K.
How many benchmarks is the MiniMax M3 vs Inkling Small comparison based on?
75 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. MiniMax M3's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and Inkling Small's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.