Inkling 2 Small vs Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Inkling 2 Small leads the LLM Stats Score 47.2 to 3.6. Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is 8.3x cheaper per token.
Thinking Machines Lab · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Inkling 2 Small leads the overall LLM Stats Score 47.2 to 3.6, ranking #39 overall.
In the 1 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Inkling 2 Small wins 1; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is roughly 8.3x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Inkling 2 Small also accepts a larger context window (256,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
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 value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results
- you process long inputs — it offers a 256,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Nov 2026
Choose Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
- cost matters — it's about 8.3x cheaper per token
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Individual benchmarks
11 reported for Inkling 2 Small · 8 for Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Inkling 2 Small outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.
Inkling 2 Small significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Inkling 2 Small ($0.30/1M tokens) is 6.0x more expensive than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct ($0.05/1M tokens).
For output processing, Inkling 2 Small ($1.00/1M tokens) is 12.5x more expensive than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct ($0.08/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Inkling 2 Small is more expensive than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Inkling 2 Small has 570.0B more parameters than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct, making it 2375.0% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Inkling 2 Small accepts 256,000 input tokens compared to Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct's 32,768 tokens. Only Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct specifies output context (32,768 tokens).
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Inkling 2 Small supports multimodal inputs, whereas Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct does not.
Inkling 2 Small can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Inkling 2 Small
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
License
Usage and distribution terms
Inkling 2 Small is licensed under a proprietary license, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Inkling 2 Small was released on 2026-11-05, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct was released on 2025-01-30.
Inkling 2 Small is 21 months newer than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct.
Nov 5, 2026
3 days ago
1.8yr newerJan 30, 2025
1.8 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-10-01, while Inkling 2 Small's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct's training data extends to 2023-10-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Inkling 2 Small's cutoff date.
—
Oct 2023
Provider Availability
Inkling 2 Small is available from Thinking Machines Lab. Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Mistral AI.
Inkling 2 Small
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Inkling 2 Small and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Inkling 2 Small vs Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct.