Mistral Large 4 vs Inkling 2 Small
Mistral Large 4 leads Inkling 2 Small on coding, 60.9 to 48.9 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Inkling 2 Small costs 2.1x less per output token ($1.00 vs $2.10 per million). Updated November 14, 2026; 37 benchmarks have a result for both.
Mistral Large 4 or Inkling 2 Small: which to pick
Pick Mistral Large 4 for coding: it scores 60.9 on the Vibe Coding Index against 48.9 for Inkling 2 Small.
Pick Inkling 2 Small for output tokens 2.1x cheaper ($1.00 vs $2.10 per million) and work measured by LMArena WebDev or SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 37
- Mistral Large 4 only
- 53
- Inkling 2 Small only
- 14
- Like-for-like categories
- 7 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
Mistral Large 4
Mistral Large 4 scores 60.9 against 48.9.
5 and 3 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Inkling 2 Small
Inkling 2 Small leads, 30.6 against 26.1.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Mistral Large 4 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1258.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
Mistral Large 4
Mistral Large 4 leads, 56.5% 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
Mistral Large 4 $0.0018, Inkling 2 Small $0.0008 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Mistral Large 4 60.9 from 5 benchmarks, Inkling 2 Small 48.9 from 3 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Math, 21.4 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- MathArena: Mistral Large 4 21.1% against Inkling 2 Small 42.4%, 21.4 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Mistral Large 4 $2.10 against Inkling 2 Small $1.00 per million output tokens, 2.1x 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 | Mistral Large 4 | Bars | Inkling 2 Small | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 5 | 5 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 1 | 4 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 4 | ||
| Math | 0 | 1 | ||
| Knowledge | 2 | 1 | ||
| General | 9 | 2 | ||
| All shared boards | 19 | 18 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index55
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 79.4% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1564 | 1647 | Inkling 2 Small |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 27.8% | 12.6% | Mistral Large 4 |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 81.6% | 81.5% | Mistral Large 4 |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 30.6% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.5% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 45.3% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | 33.1% | 43.1% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | 14.3% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 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) | 24.7% | 13.1% | Mistral Large 4 |
| FrontierCode 2.0 | 15.0% | 25.4% | Inkling 2 Small |
| FrontierCode | 39.4% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| MirrorCode | 40.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 1213.2 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1457 | 1455 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1458 | 1443 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1570 | 1660 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1549 | 1661 | Inkling 2 Small |
| SWE-Bench Pro V2 | Not measured | 97.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| GameBench 2 | 57.6 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 | 27.9% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 29 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 26.1 | 30.6 | Inkling 2 Small |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 154.6 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index14
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench research | 80.3% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LiveBench browser | 17.4% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 24.7% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 1.9% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 54.7% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 30.7% | 38.9% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 35.6% | 46.6% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 17.5% | 21.7% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 56.2% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | 67.0% | 70.0% | Inkling 2 Small |
| 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 | 51.6% | 46.8% | Mistral Large 4 |
| MCP Atlas | Not measured | 85.4% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 30 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index24
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | 85.2% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | 12.2% | 25.2% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 44.1% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| HLE-Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 17.3% | 28.7% | Inkling 2 Small |
| CritPt v2, hard subset (Artificial Analysis run) | 27.0% | 35.0% | Inkling 2 Small |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 88.1% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 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 | 33.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 17.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1434 | 1421 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1446 | 1478 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1441 | 1424 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1272 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1266 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 98.3% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 58.6% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 26.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| ProofBench | 10.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1456 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1450 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| MathArena | 21.1% | 42.4% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index21
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 40.7% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| AA-Omniscience | 5.1 | 16.1 | Inkling 2 Small |
| SimpleQA Verified | 20.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1432 | 1409 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1391 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1428 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1434 | 1415 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1258 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1278 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1204 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1273 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1238 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1255 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1222 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1203 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LiveBench design | 76.3% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index92
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 56.5% | 56.1% | Mistral Large 4 |
| LiveBench data analysis | 76.6% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 88.6% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 80.4% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 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 |
| DTBench | 88.2% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMCA | 35.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 28.1% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Furniture assembly | 20.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1411 | 1403 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1409 | 1408 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1343 | 1348 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena Vision | 1244 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1424 | 1418 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1397 | 1390 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1457 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1432 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1454 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1414 | 1377 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1421 | 1408 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1404 | 1403 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1370 | 1381 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1363 | 1359 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1254 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1254 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1186 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 22 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | 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 | Mistral Large 4 | Thinking Machines Inkling 2 Small |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Mistral AI | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | October 6, 2026 | November 9, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.70 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.10 | $1.00 |
| Coding index | 60.9 | 48.9 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 5 | 3 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Mistral Large 4 better than Inkling 2 Small for coding?
Pick Mistral Large 4 for coding: it scores 60.9 on the Vibe Coding Index against 48.9 for Inkling 2 Small. Pick Inkling 2 Small for output tokens 2.1x cheaper ($1.00 vs $2.10 per million) and work measured by LMArena WebDev or SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Large 4 or Inkling 2 Small?
Mistral Large 4 costs $0.70 per million input tokens and $2.10 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, Mistral Large 4 or Inkling 2 Small?
Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Mistral Large 4 vs Inkling 2 Small comparison based on?
37 benchmarks have a result for both models as of November 14, 2026. Mistral Large 4's coding index rests on 5 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.