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Model comparison

Inkling-Small vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

Updated August 11, 2026. Public scores include evidence status and uncertainty. They are not guarantees for a specific workload.

Inkling-Small

Thinking Machines Lab

65.5/100

Supported · Public rank #32

90% interval 59.0–71.9

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

NVIDIA

26.9/100

Estimated · Public rank #204

90% interval 17.1–36.8

Inkling-Small has the higher public score, 65.47 versus 26.93, and the 90% score intervals do not overlap.

9 results are shared. Category rows based on different benchmark sets are marked directional and do not name a winner.

Which one for your work

Recommendations appear only when a shared evidence basis or an explicit operating constraint supports the call. Secondary and unsupported use cases stay disclosed below the initial list.

  • Agentic work

    Tool use, computer use, and multi-step task completion

    Inkling-Small

    Inkling-Small leads on the same 2 weighted benchmark rows.

    Confidence: limited

Show secondary and unsupported calls
  • Coding work

    Code generation, repair, and software-engineering tasks

    Not enough matched evidence

    The category averages use different weighted benchmark sets, so they are directional rather than like-for-like.

    Confidence: limited

  • Long documents

    Prompts that approach the documented context limit

    No clear pick

    The documented context windows are equal.

    Confidence: documented

  • Chat turn cost

    1K fresh input + 500 output tokens

    Not enough matched evidence

    A complete comparable API-rate estimate is not available for both models.

    Confidence: listed-rates

  • Cache-heavy agent loop cost

    200K cached + 20K fresh input + 10K output tokens

    Not enough matched evidence

    A complete comparable API-rate estimate is not available for both models.

    Confidence: listed-rates

  • Repository review cost

    50K fresh input + 3K output tokens

    Not enough matched evidence

    A complete comparable API-rate estimate is not available for both models.

    Confidence: listed-rates

What is actually comparable

Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results present for only one model describe coverage, not superiority.

Shared results
9
Inkling-Small only
11
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 only
4
Like-for-like categories
2 / 8

2 categories use different evidence sets. Those rows remain visible for coverage context but do not name a winner.

Category results, on a stated basis

Each row states whether both averages use the same weighted benchmark set. Directional and not-comparable rows remain visible, but they never receive a winner in this template.

Agentic

Like-for-like
Inkling-Small
70.1
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4
29.1
Weighted basis
2 vs 2 rows
Reading
Inkling-Small leads

Instruction following

Like-for-like
Inkling-Small
82.2
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4
72.9
Weighted basis
1 vs 1 rows
Reading
Inkling-Small leads

Coding

Directional only
Inkling-Small
62.4
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4
42.1
Weighted basis
3 vs 2 rows
Reading
Directional only

Knowledge

Directional only
Inkling-Small
53.4
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4
80.5
Weighted basis
2 vs 2 rows
Reading
Directional only

Reasoning

Not comparable
Inkling-Small
40.1
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4
Not measured
Weighted basis
1 vs 0 rows
Reading
Not comparable

Math

Not comparable
Inkling-Small
92.9
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4
Not measured
Weighted basis
2 vs 0 rows
Reading
Not comparable

Multilingual

Not comparable
Inkling-Small
Not measured
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4
Not measured
Weighted basis
0 vs 0 rows
Reading
Not comparable

Multimodal

Not comparable
Inkling-Small
76.6
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4
Not measured
Weighted basis
2 vs 0 rows
Reading
Not comparable

Shape of the matched evidence

Only shared public evidence is shown. Sparse evidence stays a ruled list rather than being closed into a radar shape.

Too few matched category axes support a radar. The ruled list below shows only shared benchmark results; positions use each benchmark’s normalized display scale when available.

What each workload costs

Three fixed token mixes turn per-token rates into comparable decisions. Each scenario states context fit and whether cached input had to fall back to the published list-input rate.

Chat turn

1K fresh input + 500 output tokens

Inkling-Small
$0.0013
Fits in one request
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4
Self-hosted; infrastructure cost varies
Fits in one request

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 has no comparable published API token rate.

Repository review

50K fresh input + 3K output tokens

Inkling-Small
$0.03332
Fits in one request
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4
Self-hosted; infrastructure cost varies
Fits in one request

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 has no comparable published API token rate.

Cache-heavy agent loop

200K cached + 20K fresh input + 10K output tokens

Inkling-Small
$0.0492
Fits in one request
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4
Self-hosted; infrastructure cost varies
Fits in one request
Cached-input rate unavailable

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 has no comparable published API token rate.

Specification differences

Sourced differences are shown directly. Missing facts stay explicit instead of being inferred from a model name or family.

API model ID

Inkling-Small

Not sourced

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

Not sourced

Cached-input rate

A missing cached-input rate falls back to the listed input rate only in the stated workload estimate.

Inkling-Small

$0.116 per 1M cached input tokens

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

No comparable hosted API rate

NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning model card

Documented inputs

Inkling-Small

Not sourced

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

Not sourced

Documented outputs

Inkling-Small

Not sourced

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

Not sourced

Provider availability

Inkling-Small

Not sourced

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

Not sourced

Reasoning profile

Inkling-Small

Hybrid

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

Reasoning

Weight access

Inkling-Small

Open Weight

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

Open Weight

License

Inkling-Small

Open Weight

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

Open Weight

Release date

Inkling-Small

2026-07-30

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

2026-08-11

If you already use one of these models
Deployment change
The models list different providers, so authentication, endpoint behavior, limits, and feature support may change.
Quality signal
Inkling-Small has the higher public score, 65.47 versus 26.93, and the 90% score intervals do not overlap.
Workload cost
A complete comparable API-rate estimate is not available for both models.
Context tradeoff
Both models list 1M.

Run the same representative tasks against both endpoints before changing production traffic.

Benchmark evidence

The full public result ledger is available for audit without forcing a wide desktop table onto a phone.

Browse raw public benchmark evidence24 rows

Agentic

  • Terminal-Bench 2.0

    Inkling-Small64.7%
    Source
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP423.5%
    Source

    Inkling-Small leads this result

  • BrowseComp

    Inkling-Small77.4%
    Source
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP436.8%
    Source

    Inkling-Small leads this result

  • MCP Atlas

    Inkling-Small79.6%
    Source
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

    Not directly comparable

  • Toolathlon-Verified

    Inkling-Small54.4%
    Source
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

    Not directly comparable

  • PinchBench

    Inkling-Small
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP483.4%
    Source

    Not directly comparable

  • τ³-bench results

    Inkling-Small
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP49.5%
    Source

    Not directly comparable

Coding

  • SWE-bench Verified

    Inkling-Small80.2%
    Source
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP452.8%
    Source

    Inkling-Small leads this result

  • SWE-bench Pro

    Inkling-Small55.9%
    Source
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

    Not directly comparable

  • Terminal-Bench 2.0

    Inkling-Small64.7%
    Source
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP423.5%
    Source

    Inkling-Small leads this result

  • SciCode

    Inkling-Small48.7%
    Source
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP431.4%
    Source

    Inkling-Small leads this result

  • SWE Multilingual

    Inkling-Small
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP436.5%
    Source

    Not directly comparable

Reasoning

  • ARC-AGI-2

    Inkling-Small40.1%
    Source
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

    Not directly comparable

  • CritPt

    Inkling-Small8.3%
    Source
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

    Not directly comparable

Knowledge

  • GPQA

    Inkling-Small89.5%
    Source
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP475.6%
    Source

    Inkling-Small leads this result

  • GPQA-D

    Inkling-Small89.5%
    Source
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP475.6%
    Source

    Inkling-Small leads this result

  • HLE

    Inkling-Small47.8%
    Source
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

    Not directly comparable

  • HLE w/o tools

    Inkling-Small31.6%
    Source
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP410.5%
    Source

    Inkling-Small leads this result

  • MMLU-Pro

    Inkling-Small
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP481.6%
    Source

    Not directly comparable

Math

  • AIME26

    Inkling-Small95.5%
    Source
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

    Not directly comparable

  • HMMT Feb 2026

    Inkling-Small90.2%
    Source
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

    Not directly comparable

Multimodal

  • MMMU-Pro

    Inkling-Small74%
    Source
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

    Not directly comparable

  • CharXiv

    Inkling-Small81.3%
    Source
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

    Not directly comparable

  • CharXiv w/o tools

    Inkling-Small77.4%
    Source
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

    Not directly comparable

Instruction following

  • IFBench

    Inkling-Small82.2%
    Source
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP472.9%
    Source

    Inkling-Small leads this result

Frequently asked questions

Which is better, Inkling-Small or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4?

Inkling-Small has the higher public score, 65.47 versus 26.93, and the 90% score intervals do not overlap. That is the clearest overall quality signal in the current public data.

Which is better for coding, Inkling-Small or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4?

The current coding averages use different weighted benchmark sets, so BenchLM does not name a winner from them. Read the shared benchmark rows directly and test the models on the same task set.

Which is better for agentic tasks, Inkling-Small or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4?

Inkling-Small leads the like-for-like agentic tasks comparison across 2 shared weighted benchmark rows.

Which costs less, Inkling-Small or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4?

Both models do not have comparable published API token rates, so this page does not name a universal price winner.

Which has the larger context window, Inkling-Small or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4?

Both models list the same context window, 1M.

Related comparisons

Last updated August 11, 2026

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