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DeepSeek VL2 Small vs Inkling 2 Small

Inkling 2 Small leads the LLM Stats Score 47.1 to 0.6.

DeepSeek · Thinking Machines Lab · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Inkling 2 Small leads the overall LLM Stats Score 47.1 to 0.6, ranking #41 overall.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose DeepSeek VL2 Small

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Choose Inkling 2 Small

  • overall performance matters — it scores 47.1 and ranks #41 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Nov 2026

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

DeepSeek VL2 Small
DeepSeek
Inkling 2 Small
Thinking Machines Lab
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
0.6
#365
47.1
#41
Reasoning
-4.5
#383
47.8
#26
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
— / M
$0.30 / M
Output price
— / M
$1.00 / M
Context window
—
256,000

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

2 shared
Index
DeepSeek VL2 Small
Inkling 2 Small
Vision
0.1#212
29.2#47
Multimodal
2.6#170
28.9#44
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

14 reported for DeepSeek VL2 Small · 11 for Inkling 2 Small

No common benchmarks found

DeepSeek VL2 Small and Inkling 2 Smalldon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

578.0B diff

Inkling 2 Small has 578.0B more parameters than DeepSeek VL2 Small, making it 3612.5% larger.

DeepSeek
DeepSeek VL2 Small
16.0Bparameters
Thinking Machines Lab
Inkling 2 Small
594.0Bparameters
16.0B
DeepSeek VL2 Small
594.0B
Inkling 2 Small

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Inkling 2 Small specifies input context (256,000 tokens).

DeepSeek
DeepSeek VL2 Small
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Thinking Machines Lab
Inkling 2 Small
Input256,000 tokens
Output- tokens
Wed Nov 11 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both DeepSeek VL2 Small and Inkling 2 Small support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

DeepSeek VL2 Small

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Inkling 2 Small

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

DeepSeek VL2 Small is licensed under deepseek, while Inkling 2 Small uses a proprietary license.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

DeepSeek VL2 Small

deepseek

Open weights

Inkling 2 Small

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

DeepSeek VL2 Small was released on 2024-12-13, while Inkling 2 Small was released on 2026-11-05.

Inkling 2 Small is 23 months newer than DeepSeek VL2 Small.

DeepSeek VL2 Small

Dec 13, 2024

1.9 years ago

Inkling 2 Small

Nov 5, 2026

5 days ago

1.9yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against DeepSeek VL2 Small and Inkling 2 Small side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

DeepSeek VL2 Small
✓ Preferred
Inkling 2 Small
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about DeepSeek VL2 Small vs Inkling 2 Small.

Which is better, DeepSeek VL2 Small or Inkling 2 Small?

Inkling 2 Small leads the LLM Stats Score 47.1 to 0.6. DeepSeek VL2 Small is made by DeepSeek and Inkling 2 Small is made by Thinking Machines Lab. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does DeepSeek VL2 Small compare to Inkling 2 Small in benchmarks?

DeepSeek VL2 Small scores DocVQA: 92.3%, ChartQA: 84.5%, OCRBench: 83.4%, TextVQA: 83.4%, MMBench: 80.3%. Inkling 2 Small scores GPQA: 93.0%, BrowseComp: 90.2%, CharXiv-R: 85.6%, MCP Atlas: 85.0%, SWE-Bench Verified: 82.2%.

What are the context window sizes for DeepSeek VL2 Small and Inkling 2 Small?

DeepSeek VL2 Small supports an unknown number of tokens and Inkling 2 Small supports 256K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between DeepSeek VL2 Small and Inkling 2 Small?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (0.6 vs 47.1), licensing (deepseek vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes DeepSeek VL2 Small and Inkling 2 Small?

DeepSeek VL2 Small is developed by DeepSeek and Inkling 2 Small is developed by Thinking Machines Lab.

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