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Granite 3.3 8B Base vs Inkling 2 Small

Inkling 2 Small leads the LLM Stats Score 47.2 to -1.1.

IBM · Thinking Machines Lab · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Inkling 2 Small leads the overall LLM Stats Score 47.2 to -1.1, ranking #39 overall.

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

Choose Granite 3.3 8B Base

  • 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.

Granite 3.3 8B Base
IBM
Inkling 2 Small
Thinking Machines Lab
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
-1.1
#372
47.2
#39
Reasoning
-1.2
#365
47.9
#24
Coding
10.9
#193
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

20 reported for Granite 3.3 8B Base · 11 for Inkling 2 Small

No common benchmarks found

Granite 3.3 8B Base 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

585.8B diff

Inkling 2 Small has 585.8B more parameters than Granite 3.3 8B Base, making it 7170.5% larger.

IBM
Granite 3.3 8B Base
8.2Bparameters
Thinking Machines Lab
Inkling 2 Small
594.0Bparameters
8.2B
Granite 3.3 8B Base
594.0B
Inkling 2 Small

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

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

IBM
Granite 3.3 8B Base
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Thinking Machines Lab
Inkling 2 Small
Input256,000 tokens
Output- tokens
Mon Nov 09 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both Granite 3.3 8B Base and Inkling 2 Small support multimodal inputs.

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

Granite 3.3 8B Base

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Inkling 2 Small

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Granite 3.3 8B Base is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Inkling 2 Small uses a proprietary license.

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

Granite 3.3 8B Base

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Inkling 2 Small

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Granite 3.3 8B Base was released on 2025-04-16, while Inkling 2 Small was released on 2026-11-05.

Inkling 2 Small is 19 months newer than Granite 3.3 8B Base.

Granite 3.3 8B Base

Apr 16, 2025

1.6 years ago

Inkling 2 Small

Nov 5, 2026

3 days ago

1.6yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Granite 3.3 8B Base has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-04-01, while Inkling 2 Small's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Granite 3.3 8B Base's training data extends to 2024-04-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Inkling 2 Small's cutoff date.

Granite 3.3 8B Base

Apr 2024

Inkling 2 Small

—

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Granite 3.3 8B Base and Inkling 2 Small side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Granite 3.3 8B Base
✓ Preferred
Inkling 2 Small
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Granite 3.3 8B Base vs Inkling 2 Small.

Which is better, Granite 3.3 8B Base or Inkling 2 Small?

Inkling 2 Small leads the LLM Stats Score 47.2 to -1.1. Granite 3.3 8B Base is made by IBM 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 Granite 3.3 8B Base compare to Inkling 2 Small in benchmarks?

Granite 3.3 8B Base scores HumanEval: 89.7%, AttaQ: 88.5%, HumanEval+: 86.1%, AIME 2024: 81.2%, HellaSwag: 80.1%. 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 Granite 3.3 8B Base and Inkling 2 Small?

Granite 3.3 8B Base 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 Granite 3.3 8B Base and Inkling 2 Small?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (-1.1 vs 47.2), licensing (Apache 2.0 vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Granite 3.3 8B Base and Inkling 2 Small?

Granite 3.3 8B Base is developed by IBM and Inkling 2 Small is developed by Thinking Machines Lab.

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