Inkling-Small vs Mistral Large 4: Specs & Benchmark Comparison
Inkling-Small is developed by Thinking Machines Lab, while Mistral Large 4 comes from Mistral AI. Inkling-Small was released in July 2026, and Mistral Large 4 followed 3 months later in October 2026. Mistral Large 4 is the larger model at roughly 1.1 trillion parameters, against 276 billion for Inkling-Small.
The two models share 2 published benchmarks. Mistral Large 4 leads on 2 of them. The widest gaps are on SciCode, where Mistral Large 4 scores 91.8% against 48.7%; AA-Briefcase, where Mistral Large 4 scores 46.4% against 30.6%. Averaged across everything we track, Inkling-Small sits at 60.3% and Mistral Large 4 at 60.4%.
Inkling-Small is the cheaper API at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens, roughly 2 times cheaper than Mistral Large 4 at $0.68 and $2.09. Mistral Large 4 takes the larger context window at 1M tokens, compared with 256K for Inkling-Small. Inkling-Small accepts text, images, and audio as input, while Mistral Large 4 accepts text and images. On tooling, only Mistral Large 4 supports function calling and only Mistral Large 4 offers structured output.
| Characteristic | Inkling-Small | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Thinking Machines Lab | Mistral AI |
| Release Date | July 30, 2026 | October 6, 2026 |
| Parameters | 276B | 1.1T |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Context (input) | 256K | 1.0M |
| Context (output) | 256K | — |
| Input Price / 1M | $0.30 | $0.68 |
| Output Price / 1M | $1.20 | $2.09 |
| Average Score | 60.3% | 60.4% |
| Benchmarks | ||
| SciCode | 48.7% | 91.8% |
| AA-Briefcase | 30.6% | 46.4% |
Visual Benchmark Comparison
Verdict
Mistral Large 4 leads in 2 out of 4 comparison categories.
Both models show comparable average scores: Inkling-Small — 0.6, Mistral Large 4 — 0.6.
Inkling-Small is 1.8x cheaper: input $0.30/1M vs $0.68/1M tokens.
Mistral Large 4 supports a larger context: 1M vs 256K tokens.
Mistral Large 4 is newer: released 10/6/2026 vs 7/30/2026.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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The Inkling-Small and Mistral Large 4 comparison is updated for 2026. Data includes benchmark results, API pricing, context window size and other specifications. For more detailed information, visit the Inkling-Small or Mistral Large 4 page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.