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Inkling-Small vs Seed 2.1 Turbo

Seed 2.1 Turbo leads the LLM Stats Score 44.0 to 39.3.

Thinking Machines Lab · ByteDance · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Seed 2.1 Turbo leads the overall LLM Stats Score 44.0 to 39.3, ranking #31 overall.

In the 9 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Seed 2.1 Turbo wins 8; 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-Small

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jul 2026
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Choose Seed 2.1 Turbo

  • overall performance matters — it scores 44.0 and ranks #31 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 8 of 9 exact shared results

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Inkling-Small
Thinking Machines Lab
Seed 2.1 Turbo
ByteDance
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
39.3
#53
44.0
#31
Reasoning
39.0
#52
45.4
#27
Coding
31.1
#45
33.2
#36
Agents
24.8
#45
30.4
#28
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
1 of 9
8 of 9
Input price
$0.30 / M
— / M
Output price
$1.20 / M
— / M
Context window
256,000
—

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

4 shared
Index
Inkling-Small
Seed 2.1 Turbo
Math
34.2#46
39.4#19
Vision
19.6#64
30.6#25
Tool use
23.3#38
23.0#41
Multimodal
17.8#68
32.8#16
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

24 reported for Inkling-Small · 90 for Seed 2.1 Turbo

9 shared

Inkling-Small outperforms in 1 benchmarks (Toolathlon), while Seed 2.1 Turbo is better at 8 benchmarks (BrowseComp, CharXiv-R, Humanity's Last Exam, MCP Atlas, MMMU-Pro, SciCode, SWE-Bench Pro, Terminal-Bench 2.1).

Seed 2.1 Turbo significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Fri Aug 28 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

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

Thinking Machines Lab
Inkling-Small
Input256,000 tokens
Output256,000 tokens
ByteDance
Seed 2.1 Turbo
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Fri Aug 28 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both Inkling-Small and Seed 2.1 Turbo support multimodal inputs.

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

Inkling-Small

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Seed 2.1 Turbo

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Inkling-Small is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Seed 2.1 Turbo uses a proprietary license.

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

Inkling-Small

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Seed 2.1 Turbo

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Inkling-Small was released on 2026-07-30, while Seed 2.1 Turbo was released on 2026-06-24.

Inkling-Small is 1 month newer than Seed 2.1 Turbo.

Inkling-Small

Jul 30, 2026

4 weeks ago

1mo newer
Seed 2.1 Turbo

Jun 24, 2026

2 months 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

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Inkling-Small and Seed 2.1 Turbo side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Inkling-Small
✓ Preferred
Seed 2.1 Turbo
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Inkling-Small vs Seed 2.1 Turbo.

Which is better, Inkling-Small or Seed 2.1 Turbo?

Seed 2.1 Turbo leads the LLM Stats Score 44.0 to 39.3. Inkling-Small is made by Thinking Machines Lab and Seed 2.1 Turbo is made by ByteDance. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Inkling-Small compare to Seed 2.1 Turbo in benchmarks?

Inkling-Small scores AIME 2026: 95.5%, VoiceBench Avg: 90.1%, GPQA: 89.5%, Global-MMLU-Lite: 86.7%, ARC-AGI: 84.0%. Seed 2.1 Turbo scores CharXiv-D: 94.6%, MathVision: 92.7%, MathVista: 90.5%, MathVerse: 89.2%, Video-MME: 89.0%.

What are the context window sizes for Inkling-Small and Seed 2.1 Turbo?

Inkling-Small supports 256K tokens and Seed 2.1 Turbo supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Inkling-Small and Seed 2.1 Turbo?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (39.3 vs 44.0), licensing (Apache 2.0 vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Inkling-Small and Seed 2.1 Turbo?

Inkling-Small is developed by Thinking Machines Lab and Seed 2.1 Turbo is developed by ByteDance.

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