Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Inkling 2 Small
Inkling 2 Small leads Nemotron 3 Ultra on coding, 48.9 to 30.0 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Inkling 2 Small costs 2.3x less per output token ($1.00 vs $2.30 per million). Updated November 14, 2026; 32 benchmarks have a result for both.
Nemotron 3 Ultra or Inkling 2 Small: which to pick
Pick Inkling 2 Small for coding: it scores 48.9 on the Vibe Coding Index against 30.0 for Nemotron 3 Ultra.
Pick Nemotron 3 Ultra for work measured by LMArena Text: coding or LMArena Text: software and IT, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 32
- Nemotron 3 Ultra only
- 48
- Inkling 2 Small only
- 19
- 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 30.0.
3 benchmarks behind each score
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Inkling 2 Small
Inkling 2 Small leads, 30.6 against 11.8.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Nemotron 3 Ultra has a AA Agentic Index result, 20.1.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Nemotron 3 Ultra has a GPQA Diamond result, 86.1%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Nemotron 3 Ultra has a MMLU Pro result, 85.8%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Nemotron 3 Ultra has a Design Arena: websites result, 1129.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Inkling 2 Small has a Vals Index result, 56.1%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Inkling 2 Small
Inkling 2 Small takes 1.05M tokens against 262K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Inkling 2 Small
Nemotron 3 Ultra $0.0017, Inkling 2 Small $0.0008 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Nemotron 3 Ultra 30.0 from 3 benchmarks, Inkling 2 Small 48.9 from 3 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 25.9 points apart on average over 3 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): Nemotron 3 Ultra 7.6% against Inkling 2 Small 81.5%, 73.9 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Nemotron 3 Ultra $2.30 against Inkling 2 Small $1.00 per million output tokens, 2.3x apart.
- Context window
- Nemotron 3 Ultra takes 262K tokens, Inkling 2 Small 1.05M.
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 Ultra | Bars | Inkling 2 Small | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 5 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 3 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 4 | ||
| Knowledge | 2 | 1 | ||
| General | 10 | 2 | ||
| All shared boards | 16 | 16 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index25
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1647 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| AA Coding Index | 49.3 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 86.0% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 69.0% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 12.6% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 7.6% | 81.5% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 4.9% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | 0.5% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 50.9% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra 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 | 40.3% | 52.3% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 36.4% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Artificial Analysis run) | 0.5% | 13.1% | Inkling 2 Small |
| FrontierCode 2.0 | 1.1% | 25.4% | Inkling 2 Small |
| FrontierCode | 13.6% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| WeirdML | 43.5% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1468 | 1455 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1468 | 1443 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| 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 | 45.6 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra 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 | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 11.8 | 30.6 | Inkling 2 Small |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.9 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 20.1 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 1.9% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 37.7% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 38.9% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 15.4% | 46.6% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 21.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 31.7% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| 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 |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 83.3% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| APEX-Agents | 22.7% | 46.8% | Inkling 2 Small |
| MCP Atlas | 63.1% | 85.4% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Toolathlon-Verified | 34.3% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra 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 | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 86.1% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | Not measured | 25.2% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 86.7% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 28.4% | 44.1% | Inkling 2 Small |
| HLE-Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 8.5% | 28.7% | Inkling 2 Small |
| CritPt v2, hard subset (Artificial Analysis run) | 15.0% | 35.0% | Inkling 2 Small |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 85.4% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 96.5% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 81.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| SimpleBench | 41.7% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 20.0% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1452 | 1421 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1473 | 1478 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1452 | 1424 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 86.7% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| ProofBench | 2.0% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1456 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1462 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| MathArena | Not measured | 42.4% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index21
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 85.8% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 82.1% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 65.5% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 73.1% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 38.6% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| AA-Omniscience | 3.4 | 16.1 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena Text: science | 1465 | 1409 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1457 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1455 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1435 | 1415 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1129 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1126 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1126 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1137 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1108 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1131 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1060 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1093 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index102
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 56.1% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 88.6% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| IFBench | 81.4% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 79.3% | 83.3% | Inkling 2 Small |
| GDPval-AA | 1020 | 1630 | Inkling 2 Small |
| DTBench | 90.1% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMCA | 36.9% | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text | 1445 | 1403 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1418 | 1408 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1399 | 1348 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: English | 1454 | 1418 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1428 | 1390 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1498 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1473 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1383 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1472 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1458 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1420 | 1377 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1382 | Not measured | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1410 | 1408 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1437 | 1403 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1407 | 1381 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1399 | 1359 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| Neither model has a result on the other 26 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3 Ultra | 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 | NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra | Thinking Machines Inkling 2 Small |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | NVIDIA | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | June 4, 2026 | November 9, 2026 |
| Context window | 262K | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.55 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.30 | $1.00 |
| Coding index | 30.0 | 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 Ultra better than Inkling 2 Small for coding?
Pick Inkling 2 Small for coding: it scores 48.9 on the Vibe Coding Index against 30.0 for Nemotron 3 Ultra. Pick Nemotron 3 Ultra for work measured by LMArena Text: coding or LMArena Text: software and IT, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Nemotron 3 Ultra or Inkling 2 Small?
Nemotron 3 Ultra costs $0.55 per million input tokens and $2.30 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 Ultra or Inkling 2 Small?
Inkling 2 Small, with 1.05M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks is the Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Inkling 2 Small comparison based on?
32 benchmarks have a result for both models as of November 14, 2026. Nemotron 3 Ultra'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.