Inkling 2 Small vs Phi 4 Mini
Inkling 2 Small leads the LLM Stats Score 47.2 to -4.6.
Thinking Machines Lab · Microsoft · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Inkling 2 Small leads the overall LLM Stats Score 47.2 to -4.6, 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.
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 — it leads those capability indexes
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Nov 2026
Choose Phi 4 Mini
- 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 · 17 for Phi 4 Mini
Inkling 2 Small outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Phi 4 Mini is better at 0 benchmarks.
Inkling 2 Small significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Inkling 2 Small has 590.2B more parameters than Phi 4 Mini, making it 15368.8% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Inkling 2 Small specifies input context (256,000 tokens).
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Inkling 2 Small supports multimodal inputs, whereas Phi 4 Mini 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
Phi 4 Mini
License
Usage and distribution terms
Inkling 2 Small is licensed under a proprietary license, while Phi 4 Mini uses MIT.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
MIT
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Inkling 2 Small was released on 2026-11-05, while Phi 4 Mini was released on 2025-02-01.
Inkling 2 Small is 21 months newer than Phi 4 Mini.
Nov 5, 2026
3 days ago
1.8yr newerFeb 1, 2025
1.8 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Phi 4 Mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-06-01, while Inkling 2 Small's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Phi 4 Mini's training data extends to 2024-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Inkling 2 Small's cutoff date.
—
Jun 2024
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Inkling 2 Small and Phi 4 Mini side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Inkling 2 Small vs Phi 4 Mini.