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Gemma 2 9B vs Inkling 2 Small

Inkling 2 Small leads the LLM Stats Score 47.2 to -5.4.

Google · Thinking Machines Lab · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Inkling 2 Small leads the overall LLM Stats Score 47.2 to -5.4, ranking #39 overall.

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

Choose Gemma 2 9B

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

Choose Inkling 2 Small

  • overall performance matters — it scores 47.2 and ranks #39 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Nov 2026

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Gemma 2 9B
Google
Inkling 2 Small
Thinking Machines Lab
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
-5.4
#397
47.2
#39
Reasoning
-5.7
#389
47.9
#24
Coding
-11.1
#303
36.3
#35
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
— / M
$0.30 / M
Output price
— / M
$1.00 / M
Context window
—
256,000

Individual benchmarks

16 reported for Gemma 2 9B · 11 for Inkling 2 Small

No common benchmarks found

Gemma 2 9B 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

584.8B diff

Inkling 2 Small has 584.8B more parameters than Gemma 2 9B, making it 6328.6% larger.

Google
Gemma 2 9B
9.2Bparameters
Thinking Machines Lab
Inkling 2 Small
594.0Bparameters
9.2B
Gemma 2 9B
594.0B
Inkling 2 Small

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

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

Google
Gemma 2 9B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Thinking Machines Lab
Inkling 2 Small
Input256,000 tokens
Output- tokens
Sun Nov 08 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Inkling 2 Small supports multimodal inputs, whereas Gemma 2 9B does not.

Inkling 2 Small can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Gemma 2 9B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Inkling 2 Small

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Gemma 2 9B is licensed under Gemma, while Inkling 2 Small uses a proprietary license.

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

Gemma 2 9B

Gemma

Open weights

Inkling 2 Small

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Gemma 2 9B was released on 2024-06-27, while Inkling 2 Small was released on 2026-11-05.

Inkling 2 Small is 29 months newer than Gemma 2 9B.

Gemma 2 9B

Jun 27, 2024

2.4 years ago

Inkling 2 Small

Nov 5, 2026

3 days ago

2.4yr 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 Gemma 2 9B and Inkling 2 Small side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Gemma 2 9B
✓ Preferred
Inkling 2 Small
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Gemma 2 9B vs Inkling 2 Small.

Which is better, Gemma 2 9B or Inkling 2 Small?

Inkling 2 Small leads the LLM Stats Score 47.2 to -5.4. Gemma 2 9B is made by Google 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 Gemma 2 9B compare to Inkling 2 Small in benchmarks?

Gemma 2 9B scores ARC-E: 88.0%, BoolQ: 84.2%, HellaSwag: 81.9%, PIQA: 81.7%, Winogrande: 80.6%. 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 Gemma 2 9B and Inkling 2 Small?

Gemma 2 9B 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 Gemma 2 9B and Inkling 2 Small?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (-5.4 vs 47.2), multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (Gemma vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Gemma 2 9B and Inkling 2 Small?

Gemma 2 9B is developed by Google and Inkling 2 Small is developed by Thinking Machines Lab.

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