Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs Inkling 2 Small
Inkling 2 Small leads Nemotron 3.5 Super VL on coding, 48.9 to 14.8 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Nemotron 3.5 Super VL costs 2.0x less per output token ($0.50 vs $1.00 per million). Updated November 14, 2026; 16 benchmarks have a result for both.
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL or Inkling 2 Small: which to pick
Pick Inkling 2 Small for coding: it scores 48.9 on the Vibe Coding Index against 14.8 for Nemotron 3.5 Super VL.
Pick Nemotron 3.5 Super VL for output tokens 2.0x cheaper ($0.50 vs $1.00 per million).
- Shared results
- 16
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL only
- 16
- Inkling 2 Small only
- 35
- 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
Inkling 2 Small
Inkling 2 Small scores 48.9 against 14.8.
3 benchmarks behind each score
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Inkling 2 Small
Inkling 2 Small leads, 30.6 against 13.6.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Nemotron 3.5 Super VL has a Design Arena: websites result, 1160.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
Inkling 2 Small
Inkling 2 Small leads, 56.1% against 29.8%.
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
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL $0.0004, Inkling 2 Small $0.0008 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 14.8 from 3 benchmarks, Inkling 2 Small 48.9 from 3 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 27.3 points apart on average over 3 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 3.7% against Inkling 2 Small 81.5%, 77.8 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL $0.50 against Inkling 2 Small $1.00 per million output tokens, 2.0x 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 | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL | Bars | Inkling 2 Small | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 5 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 3 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 3 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 1 | ||
| General | 0 | 3 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 16 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index05
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 54.1% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Super VL measured |
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1647 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 0.0% | 12.6% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 3.7% | 81.5% | Inkling 2 Small |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.5% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | Not measured | 43.1% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 72.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| SciCode | 47.8% | 52.3% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Artificial Analysis run) | 0.0% | 13.1% | Inkling 2 Small |
| FrontierCode 2.0 | 6.1% | 25.4% | Inkling 2 Small |
| ALE-Bench | 956.7 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Super VL measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1455 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1443 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1660 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1661 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| SWE-Bench Pro V2 | Not measured | 97.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| GameBench 2 | 48.1 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Super VL measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 | 0.3% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Super VL measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 34 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 13.6 | 30.6 | Inkling 2 Small |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench research | 67.1% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Super VL measured |
| LiveBench browser | 21.6% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Super VL measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 12.0% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Super VL measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 1.9% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 11.6% | 38.9% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 10.1% | 46.6% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 3.8% | 21.7% | Inkling 2 Small |
| 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 |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 46.8% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| MCP Atlas | Not measured | 85.4% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 32 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | 74.6% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Super VL measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | Not measured | 25.2% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 30.7% | 44.1% | Inkling 2 Small |
| HLE-Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 8.8% | 28.7% | Inkling 2 Small |
| CritPt v2, hard subset (Artificial Analysis run) | 13.5% | 35.0% | Inkling 2 Small |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 96.5% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 81.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1421 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1478 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1424 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MathArena | Not measured | 42.4% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA-Omniscience | -2.9 | 16.1 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1409 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1415 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 18 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1160 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Super VL measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1156 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Super VL measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1078 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Super VL measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1084 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Super VL measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1119 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Super VL measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1140 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Super VL measured |
| LiveBench design | 60.0% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Super VL measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 29.8% | 56.1% | Inkling 2 Small |
| LiveBench data analysis | 64.6% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3.5 Super VL measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 88.6% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 69.0% | 83.3% | Inkling 2 Small |
| GDPval-AA | 1162 | 1630 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1403 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1408 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1348 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1418 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1390 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1377 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1408 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1403 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1381 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1359 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 34 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL | 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
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Nemotron 3.5 Super 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 | NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Super VL | Thinking Machines Inkling 2 Small |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | NVIDIA | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | October 15, 2026 | November 9, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.15 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.50 | $1.00 |
| Coding index | 14.8 | 48.9 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 3 | 3 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Nemotron 3.5 Super VL better than Inkling 2 Small for coding?
Pick Inkling 2 Small for coding: it scores 48.9 on the Vibe Coding Index against 14.8 for Nemotron 3.5 Super VL. Pick Nemotron 3.5 Super VL for output tokens 2.0x cheaper ($0.50 vs $1.00 per million).
Which is cheaper, Nemotron 3.5 Super VL or Inkling 2 Small?
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL costs $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.50 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, Nemotron 3.5 Super VL or Inkling 2 Small?
Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs Inkling 2 Small comparison based on?
16 benchmarks have a result for both models as of November 14, 2026. Nemotron 3.5 Super VL'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.