Inkling-Small
Thinking MachinesOpenApache 2.0
Inkling-Small is a vision-language model from Thinking Machines. It ranks 75 of 167 on LMArena’s overall vision board with 1237±8 from 8,074 votes. Its best category is Diagrams (#75 of 123). License: Apache 2.0.
Key figures
- Developer
- Thinking Machines
- License
- Apache 2.0
- First seen (our snapshots)
- 2026-10-26
No data: Captioning, Entity recognition.
Who it suits
- Overall #75 of 167: upper half.
- Strongest category: Diagrams (#75 of 123).
- Open weights (Apache 2.0): you can self-host it.
Neighbours on the overall board
| # | Model | Score | Votes | License | Δ vs this model |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 72 |  Qwen3.5-27B Alibaba | 1241 | 30,272 | Apache 2.0 | +4 |
| 73 |  Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Preview Google | 1240 | 27,657 | Proprietary | +3 |
| 74 |  GPT-6 Sol (Max) OpenAI | 1240 | 3,221 | Proprietary | +3 |
| 75 | TInkling-Small Thinking Machines | 1237 | 8,074 | Apache 2.0 | |
| 76 | Gemini 2.5 Flash Google | 1235 | 60,087 | Proprietary | -2 |
| 77 | GPT-5.1 OpenAI | 1235 | 10,801 | Proprietary | -2 |
| 78 | GPT-5 Chat OpenAI | 1232 | 39,894 | Proprietary | -5 |
Alternatives · Top open-weight models
| # | Model | Score | Votes | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 |  GLM-5.3-Flash Z.ai | 1294 | 16,254 | MIT |
| 34 |  Kimi K2.6 Moonshot AI | 1282 | 16,368 | Modified MIT |
| 38 |  DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-20260910 (Max) DeepSeek | 1278 | 4,100 | MIT |
| 39 | Gemma 4 31B Google | 1276 | 40,219 | Apache 2.0 |
| 44 | Qwen3.8-27B Alibaba | 1269 | 7,614 | Apache 2.0 |
How to read these scores
- If two scores differ by less than their ± intervals, the models are statistically close.
- Each category board is computed independently; do not compare scores across categories.
- Models with few votes move more; ranks of new entries may change.
FAQ
Where does Inkling-Small rank among vision models?
Overall rank 75 (1237); OCR rank 76 (1243); Diagrams rank 75 (1251); Homework rank 73 (1257); Creative writing rank 83 (1205); Humor rank 72 (1207); English rank 73 (1243); Chinese rank 56 (1292) (LMArena, data as of Oct 26, 2026).
How good is Inkling-Small at OCR?
Inkling-Small ranks 76 of 123 on LMArena’s OCR board with 1243 (5,655 votes).
Is Inkling-Small better with Chinese or English prompts?
Chinese board: #56 of 128 (1292); English board: #73 of 167 (1243). The boards are computed separately, so compare ranks rather than scores.
Is Inkling-Small open-weight?
LMArena lists its license as Apache 2.0, not proprietary; check the license text for commercial use.
How far is Inkling-Small from #1?
#1 overall is Claude Fable 5 (High) (1325); Inkling-Small has 1237, 88 points behind.
Sources
LMArena data published Oct 19, 2026.
Synced here Oct 26, 2026.
Price, context length and release date have no reliable public data here and are not shown; all figures come from snapshots, blanks are –.