Inkling 2 Small vs MiniMax-M3.1-Flash: which is cheaper?

Inkling 2 Small leads the intelligence index 30.6 to 29.1. MiniMax-M3.1-Flash costs 45% less on blended price. See token costs, speed and which to pick.

Metric	Inkling 2 Small	MiniMax-M3.1-Flash
Intelligence Index	30.6	29.1
Input price (per 1M tokens)	$0.30	$0.15
Output price (per 1M tokens)	$1.00	$0.60
Output speed (tokens/s)	139	147
Time to first token	2.2s	1.0s
Release date	2026-11-05	2026-10-19

Metric

Inkling 2 Small

MiniMax-M3.1-Flash

Intelligence Index

30.6

29.1

Input price (per 1M tokens)

$0.30

$0.15

Output price (per 1M tokens)

$1.00

$0.60

Output speed (tokens/s)

139

147

Time to first token

2.2s

1.0s

Release date

2026-11-05

2026-10-19

On the headline score, Thinking Machines's Inkling 2 Small and MiniMax's MiniMax-M3.1-Flash are almost level. Cost is where they split the most, with MiniMax-M3.1-Flash working out at about 55% of Inkling 2 Small's blended rate. All numbers are the catalogue's recorded values; nobody ran either model by hand for this page.

What they cost

The list prices are $0.30 in and $1.00 out for Inkling 2 Small, and $0.15 in and $0.60 out for MiniMax-M3.1-Flash, per million tokens. Inkling 2 Small costs 1.7 times as much per output token.

Take 1 million input tokens and 200,000 output tokens: that comes to $0.50 on Inkling 2 Small and $0.27 on MiniMax-M3.1-Flash. For writing 2,000 drafts of 2,000 output tokens from 300-token prompts, MiniMax-M3.1-Flash would come in 40% lower: $4.18 for Inkling 2 Small against $2.49 for MiniMax-M3.1-Flash.

Release timing

Inkling 2 Small arrived on November 5, 2026, 17 days after MiniMax-M3.1-Flash (October 19, 2026). That is close enough to count them as the same generation.

The headline benchmark

Inkling 2 Small records 30.6 on the intelligence index and MiniMax-M3.1-Flash records 29.1. It is a small margin for an index that averages many evaluations. In relative terms, Inkling 2 Small scores 5% higher.

Among 109 active scored models, Inkling 2 Small sits 52nd and MiniMax-M3.1-Flash 59th.

The catalogue does not yet split either model's score into coding and math indexes.

Cost per point of intelligence

Per point of intelligence index, Inkling 2 Small costs $0.016 of blended price per million tokens and MiniMax-M3.1-Flash $0.0090. Inkling 2 Small costs 1.7 times as much per point, which is the price of its lead.

Waiting time

Measured output speed is 139 tokens per second for Inkling 2 Small and 147 tokens per second for MiniMax-M3.1-Flash. There is little to choose between them on raw output speed. Before any text appears, Inkling 2 Small takes 2.2 seconds and MiniMax-M3.1-Flash 1.0 seconds. In an interactive app, MiniMax-M3.1-Flash will feel noticeably more responsive.

For a 600-token response, first token plus generation comes to roughly 6.6 seconds on Inkling 2 Small and 5.1 seconds on MiniMax-M3.1-Flash.

Quick answers

Is MiniMax-M3.1-Flash better than Inkling 2 Small?

Neither wins everywhere: Inkling 2 Small scores higher on the intelligence index, 30.6 to 29.1; MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is 45% cheaper on blended price; and MiniMax-M3.1-Flash reaches its first token sooner.

Was this comparison tested by hand?

The figures are the recorded benchmark, price and speed data in Franklin AI's model catalogue. This page is written from that data automatically; neither model was tested by hand for it.

Which is newer, Inkling 2 Small or MiniMax-M3.1-Flash?

Inkling 2 Small is newer. It was released on November 5, 2026, 17 days after MiniMax-M3.1-Flash (October 19, 2026).

Who makes Inkling 2 Small and MiniMax-M3.1-Flash?

Inkling 2 Small is made by Thinking Machines and MiniMax-M3.1-Flash by MiniMax. Inkling 2 Small was released on November 5, 2026 and MiniMax-M3.1-Flash on October 19, 2026.

Which is faster, Inkling 2 Small or MiniMax-M3.1-Flash?

Their output speeds are close: 139 tokens per second for Inkling 2 Small and 147 tokens per second for MiniMax-M3.1-Flash. MiniMax-M3.1-Flash reaches its first token sooner (1.0 seconds against 2.2 seconds).

Final whistle

MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is the stronger all-round pick on this data, while Inkling 2 Small makes sense in narrower cases. Pick Inkling 2 Small if you need the higher overall score (30.6 against 29.1). Pick MiniMax-M3.1-Flash if cost matters ($0.60 against $1.00 per million output tokens) and users are waiting on the first word.

Where the numbers come from

The scores, speed and prices in this comparison come from independent third-party model evaluations that Franklin AI syncs each day, and the article was written from a snapshot of them. For the latest results, open the Inkling 2 Small and MiniMax-M3.1-Flash pages. The AI Benchmark methodology explains how that data is collected and shown.