text model comparison
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite vs Inkling 2 Small
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite and Inkling 2 Small are both current text models, from Google and Thinking Machines Lab. Both cost $0.30 per 1M input tokens. Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite has the larger context window, 1,048,576 vs 262,144 tokens.
- Longer context window
- Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite1.05M tokens against 262K tokens
- Newer release
- Inkling 2 SmallNov 2026 against Jul 2026
Data verified November 6, 2026 · Dataset 2026-11-06
Side by side
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite and Inkling 2 Small, line by line
Prices in effect today, compared at the same tier wherever both list one. The better value in each row is highlighted.
| Fact | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | Inkling 2 Small |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ||
| Price per 1M input tokens | $0.30 | $0.30 |
| Price per 1M output tokens | $2.50 | $1 (better) |
| Independent benchmarks | ||
| Arena Text | 1456 Elo (#32 of 52) | Not measured |
| Arena WebDev | 1434 Elo (#40 of 46) | Not measured |
| GPQA Diamond | 83.3% (#36 of 41) | Not measured |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) | 26% (#39 of 41) | Not measured |
| Specs | ||
| Provider | Thinking Machines Lab | |
| Release date | July 21, 2026 | November 5, 2026 |
| Access | API only | API only |
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | Not reported |
| Input | text, image, audio, video | text, image |
| Output | text | text |
No independent benchmark has scored both models yet. Each rank counts the current models scored on that benchmark.
Charts
Against every current text model
Where Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite and Inkling 2 Small land among the current models of their task, on every independent benchmark, on price and on context.
Where each stands
Only Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite has a current Arena Text score: #32 of 52. Each bar is the share of current models it beats.
Independent benchmarks
Arena Text
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite:#32of 52
1,456 Elo · ahead of 39%
Inkling 2 Small: Not scored
Arena WebDev
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite:#40of 46
1,434 Elo · ahead of 13%
Inkling 2 Small: Not scored
GPQA Diamond
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite:#36of 41
83.3% · ahead of 13%
Inkling 2 Small: Not scored
FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite:#39of 41
26% · ahead of 5%
Inkling 2 Small: Not scored
Price and context
Price per 1M input tokens
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite:#11of 58
$0.30 · cheaper than 75%
Inkling 2 Small:#11of 58
$0.30 · cheaper than 75%
Price per 1M output tokens
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite:#18of 58
$2.50 · cheaper than 67%
Inkling 2 Small:#10of 58
$1 · cheaper than 84%
Context window
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite:#12of 67
1.05M tokens · longer than 67%
Inkling 2 Small:#57of 67
262K tokens · longer than 12%
Quality against price
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite scores 1,456 at $0.85 (blended price per 1M tokens). The line joins the current models no other beats on both price and Arena Text score; hover any point to name it.
Quality against price: the data
| Model | Provider | Blended price per 1M tokens | Arena Text (Elo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 4 Carbon | $4 | 1,528 | |
| Gemini 4 Argon | $4 | 1,520 | |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | Anthropic | $8 | 1,509 |
| Muse Wonder | Meta | $8 | 1,507 |
| Claude Fable 5 | Anthropic | $20 | 1,504 |
| Claude Fable 5.1 | Anthropic | $20 | 1,504 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | $1.50 | 1,496 | |
| Muse Spark 1.3 | Meta | $2 | 1,495 |
| Claude Opus 5 | Anthropic | $10 | 1,492 |
| Kimi K3 | Moonshot Kimi | $6 | 1,488 |
| GPT-5.6 Sol | OpenAI | $8 | 1,485 |
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | $3 | 1,483 | |
| GPT-5.5 | OpenAI | $11 | 1,482 |
| Claude Opus 4.8 | Anthropic | $10 | 1,482 |
| Qwen3.8-Max | Alibaba Qwen | $3 | 1,482 |
| GPT-6.1 Sol | OpenAI | $4 | 1,481 |
| GLM-5.3 | Z.ai | $2.15 | 1,481 |
| MiMo-V2.6-Pro | Xiaomi MiMo | $0.54 | 1,480 |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Anthropic | $4 | 1,477 |
| GLM-5.3-Flash | Z.ai | $0.24 | 1,477 |
| GPT-6 Astra | OpenAI | $20 | 1,476 |
| DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash | DeepSeek | $0.52 | 1,476 |
| GPT-5.4 | OpenAI | $5.63 | 1,475 |
| Gemini 3 Flash Preview | $1.13 | 1,473 | |
| Grok 4.20 | xAI | $1.56 | 1,472 |
| GPT-5.6 Terra | OpenAI | $4.50 | 1,467 |
| Grok 4.5 | xAI | $3 | 1,465 |
| DeepSeek-V4-Pro | DeepSeek | $1.98 | 1,465 |
| Claude Sonnet 5 | Anthropic | $4 | 1,462 |
| GPT-6 Sol | OpenAI | $4 | 1,458 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | $0.85 | 1,456 | |
| Grok 4.6 | xAI | $3 | 1,455 |
| GPT-5.6 Luna | OpenAI | $0.45 | 1,453 |
| MiMo-V2.6-Flash | Xiaomi MiMo | $0.18 | 1,448 |
| Step 5 Preview | StepFun | $1.43 | 1,448 |
| Grok 4.3 | xAI | $1.56 | 1,442 |
| GPT-6 Luna | OpenAI | $0.20 | 1,441 |
| Grok 4.7 | xAI | $3 | 1,441 |
| Mistral Large 4 | Mistral AI | $1.05 | 1,432 |
| Claude Haiku 5.5 | Anthropic | $0.20 | 1,425 |
| GPT-4.1 | OpenAI | $3.50 | 1,415 |
| Solar Pro 4 | Upstage | $0.52 | 1,388 |
| GPT-4.1 mini | OpenAI | $0.70 | 1,383 |
| GPT-4.1 nano | OpenAI | $0.18 | 1,322 |
Cost
What each costs
Example workloads at each provider's listed rates, then every other rate either one lists. The cheaper figure in each row is highlighted.
The same work, priced
For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite costs 1.6 times as much as Inkling 2 Small, at each provider's listed rates.
10M input and 2M output tokens
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite costs 1.6× as much
- Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
- $8
- Inkling 2 Small
- $5
The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite costs 2.2× as much
- Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
- $5.57
- Inkling 2 Small
- $2.57
| Workload or rate | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | Inkling 2 Small |
|---|---|---|
| Example workloads | ||
| 10M input and 2M output tokens | $8 | $5 (better) |
| The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached | $5.57 | $2.57 (better) |
| Other listed rates | ||
| 1M input tokens, cached | $0.03 | $0.03 |
Your own bill will differ. These figures use list prices and example workloads. The AI Model Cost Audit reviews your real usage, shortlists models that score as well for each task for less, and estimates the savings.
Launch price $100, regular price $150
Verdict
When to choose each
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Where it leads
- Larger context window 1,048,576 vs 262,144 tokens
- Accepts audio and video input
Best for
- High-volume extraction, structured parsing, and cost-sensitive subagent trials
Watch out for
- The represented prices are standard API rates; batch, flex, and priority consumption use different rates
Inkling 2 Small
Where it leads
- Lower price per 1M output tokens, $1 vs $2.50
Best for
- Agentic coding and office, finance and legal work at a low per-token price
- Teams that want to post-train their own variant on Tinker
Watch out for
- Closed weights for now: Thinking Machines says it will publish the full weights under Apache 2.0 the week after launch, once external safety testing ends; until then Tinker is the only way to use it
- Tinker serves it with a 64K or 256K context, although the model card lists up to 1M tokens
- In its lab's own table DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash scores higher on DeepSWE v1.1 (77.0% against 72.1%) and Claude Haiku 5.5 on Vibe Code Bench (90.4% against 81.6%); Thinking Machines also says it is less tuned for chat, and no independent benchmark score is recorded here yet
From benchmark to production
Building on Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or Inkling 2 Small?
Public scores rarely hold on your own data. We test both models on your real tasks, then build the agent or pipeline around the one that wins.
AI Model Cost AuditLaunch price $100, regular price $150What the audit includes
FAQ
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite vs Inkling 2 Small FAQ
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or Inkling 2 Small?
Both cost $0.30 per 1M input tokens. For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite costs $8 and Inkling 2 Small $5 at standard rates.
Which is cheaper with prompt caching, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or Inkling 2 Small?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite charges $0.03 per 1M cached input tokens, 90% below its standard input rate, and Inkling 2 Small $0.03, 90% below. With 9M of 10M input tokens cached and 2M output tokens, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite costs $5.57 and Inkling 2 Small $2.57.
Which has the larger context window, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or Inkling 2 Small?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite has the larger context window, 1,048,576 vs 262,144 tokens.
How do Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite and Inkling 2 Small differ in features?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite takes text, image, audio and video input; Inkling 2 Small takes text and image.
Further reading
More on Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite and Inkling 2 Small
Related comparisons
- Claude Haiku 5.5 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
- Claude Haiku 5.5 vs Inkling 2 Small
- Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite vs GPT-6 Luna
- DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash vs Inkling 2 Small
- DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Inkling 2 Small
- Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite vs GLM-5.3-Flash
- GLM-5.3-Flash vs Inkling 2 Small
- Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite vs Grok 4.6
- GLM-5.3 vs Inkling 2 Small
- Gemini 3.5 Flash vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
- GPT-6 Luna vs Inkling 2 Small
Production evaluation
Choosing between Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite and Inkling 2 Small?
Public benchmarks narrow the shortlist. We run both on your own tasks, data and cost limits, then build the routing and review controls to run the winner in production.
- A head-to-head evaluation on your real workload
- Routing between models by cost and difficulty