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Inkling 2 Small vs Pixtral-12B

Inkling 2 Small leads the LLM Stats Score 47.1 to -2.3. Pixtral-12B is 3.2x cheaper per token.

Thinking Machines Lab · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Inkling 2 Small leads the overall LLM Stats Score 47.1 to -2.3, ranking #41 overall.

On price, Pixtral-12B is roughly 3.2x 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 47.1 and ranks #41 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 256,000 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Nov 2026

Choose Pixtral-12B

  • cost matters — it's about 3.2x cheaper per token
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Inkling 2 Small
Thinking Machines Lab
Pixtral-12B
Mistral AI
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
47.1
#41
-2.3
#381
Reasoning
47.8
#26
-4.5
#382
Coding
36.2
#35
-2.7
#290
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
$0.30 / M
$0.15 / M
Output price
$1.00 / M
$0.15 / M
Context window
256,000
128,000

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

2 shared
Index
Inkling 2 Small
Pixtral-12B
Vision
29.2#47
-0.3#213
Multimodal
28.9#44
3.0#169
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

11 reported for Inkling 2 Small · 12 for Pixtral-12B

No common benchmarks found

Inkling 2 Small and Pixtral-12Bdon'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

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Pixtral-12B costs less

For input processing, Inkling 2 Small ($0.30/1M tokens) is 2.0x more expensive than Pixtral-12B ($0.15/1M tokens).

For output processing, Inkling 2 Small ($1.00/1M tokens) is 6.7x more expensive than Pixtral-12B ($0.15/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Inkling 2 Small is more expensive than Pixtral-12B.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Tue Nov 10 2026 • llm-stats.com
Thinking Machines Lab
Inkling 2 Small
Input tokens$0.30
Output tokens$1.00
Best providerUnknown Organization
Mistral AI
Pixtral-12B
Input tokens$0.15
Output tokens$0.15
Best providerMistral
Notice missing or incorrect data?

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

581.6B diff

Inkling 2 Small has 581.6B more parameters than Pixtral-12B, making it 4690.3% larger.

Thinking Machines Lab
Inkling 2 Small
594.0Bparameters
Mistral AI
Pixtral-12B
12.4Bparameters
594.0B
Inkling 2 Small
12.4B
Pixtral-12B

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Inkling 2 Small accepts 256,000 input tokens compared to Pixtral-12B's 128,000 tokens. Only Pixtral-12B specifies output context (8,192 tokens).

Thinking Machines Lab
Inkling 2 Small
Input256,000 tokens
Output- tokens
Mistral AI
Pixtral-12B
Input128,000 tokens
Output8,192 tokens
Tue Nov 10 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both Inkling 2 Small and Pixtral-12B support multimodal inputs.

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

Inkling 2 Small

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Pixtral-12B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Inkling 2 Small is licensed under a proprietary license, while Pixtral-12B uses Apache 2.0.

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

Inkling 2 Small

Proprietary

Closed source

Pixtral-12B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Inkling 2 Small was released on 2026-11-05, while Pixtral-12B was released on 2024-09-17.

Inkling 2 Small is 26 months newer than Pixtral-12B.

Inkling 2 Small

Nov 5, 2026

4 days ago

2.1yr newer
Pixtral-12B

Sep 17, 2024

2.1 years ago

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

Provider Availability

Inkling 2 Small is available from Thinking Machines Lab. Pixtral-12B is available from Mistral AI.

Inkling 2 Small

thinking-machines logo
Unknown Organization
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.00/1M

Pixtral-12B

mistral logo
Mistral
Input Price:Input: $0.15/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.15/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Inkling 2 Small and Pixtral-12B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Inkling 2 Small
✓ Preferred
Pixtral-12B
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Inkling 2 Small vs Pixtral-12B.

Which is better, Inkling 2 Small or Pixtral-12B?

Inkling 2 Small leads the LLM Stats Score 47.1 to -2.3. Inkling 2 Small is made by Thinking Machines Lab and Pixtral-12B is made by Mistral AI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Inkling 2 Small compare to Pixtral-12B in benchmarks?

Inkling 2 Small scores GPQA: 93.0%, BrowseComp: 90.2%, CharXiv-R: 85.6%, MCP Atlas: 85.0%, SWE-Bench Verified: 82.2%. Pixtral-12B scores DocVQA: 90.7%, ChartQA: 81.8%, VQAv2: 78.6%, MT-Bench: 76.8%, HumanEval: 72.0%.

Is Inkling 2 Small cheaper than Pixtral-12B?

Pixtral-12B is 2.0x cheaper for input tokens. Inkling 2 Small costs $0.30/M input and $1.00/M output via thinking-machines. Pixtral-12B costs $0.15/M input and $0.15/M output via mistral.

What are the context window sizes for Inkling 2 Small and Pixtral-12B?

Inkling 2 Small supports 256K tokens and Pixtral-12B supports 128K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Inkling 2 Small and Pixtral-12B?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (47.1 vs -2.3), context window (256K vs 128K), input pricing ($0.30 vs $0.15/M), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Inkling 2 Small and Pixtral-12B?

Inkling 2 Small is developed by Thinking Machines Lab and Pixtral-12B is developed by Mistral AI.

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