# Inkling 2 Small vs MiniMax M3

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Inkling 2 Small and MiniMax M3 across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-minimax-m3
- Last updated: November 7, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 5
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5.8

## Quick Verdict

Inkling 2 Small leads by point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence. Choose using the category evidence and your own workload tests.

## Summary

- Inkling 2 Small has the higher overall point estimate 59.06 to 49.27. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.
- The clearest category separation is in multimodal & grounded, where the averages are 86.6 for Inkling 2 Small and 58.3 for MiniMax M3.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is Terminal-Bench 2.1 in Agentic, with scores of 85.1% and 66.0%.
- Inkling 2 Small is the cheaper option on output tokens, which matters if you expect large responses or heavy interactive use.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Inkling 2 Small | MiniMax M3 |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | Thinking Machines Lab | MiniMax |
| Type | Proprietary | Open Weight |
| Reasoning | Hybrid | Non-Reasoning |
| Context | 1M | 1M |
| Overall Score | 59.06 | 49.27 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 25 | 28 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $0.30 / $1.00 | $0.30 / $1.20 |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Inkling 2 Small
- Inkling 2 Small public-lane score: 59.9 (Supported · #26/131)
- MiniMax M3 public-lane score: 39 (Supported · #73/131)

| Benchmark | Inkling 2 Small | MiniMax M3 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 85.1% | 66.0% | Inkling 2 Small |
| BrowseComp | 90.2% | 83.5% | Inkling 2 Small |
| DeepSearchQA | 90.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MCP Atlas | 85% | 74.2% | Inkling 2 Small |
| JobBench | 70.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| OSWorld-Verified | Coming soon | 70.1% | Coming soon |
| Claw-Eval | Coming soon | 74.5% | Coming soon |
| BankerToolBench | Coming soon | 76.1% | Coming soon |
| ResearchClawBench | Coming soon | 19.8% | Coming soon |
| OSWorld 2.0 | Coming soon | 4.6% | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals) | Coming soon | 53.6% | Coming soon |
| MazeBench | Coming soon | 0% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Inkling 2 Small
- Inkling 2 Small public-lane score: 59.7 (Supported · #20/157)
- MiniMax M3 public-lane score: 37.7 (Supported · #76/157)

| Benchmark | Inkling 2 Small | MiniMax M3 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 82.2% | 80.5% | Inkling 2 Small |
| SWE Multilingual | 81.2% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| sweMarathon | 38.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 85.1% | 66.0% | Inkling 2 Small |
| DeepSWE | 72.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| PostTrainBench v1.2 | 31.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE-bench Pro | Coming soon | 59% | Coming soon |
| NL2Repo | Coming soon | 42.1% | Coming soon |
| VIBE V2 | Coming soon | 50.1% | Coming soon |
| SVG-Bench | Coming soon | 63.7% | Coming soon |
| KernelBench Hard | Coming soon | 28.8% | Coming soon |
| OpenHarmony Bench | Coming soon | 48.4% | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals) | Coming soon | 82.2% | Coming soon |
| SWE-bench (Vals) | Coming soon | 75.0% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- Inkling 2 Small public-lane score: 86.1 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)
- MiniMax M3 public-lane score: 80.3 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | Inkling 2 Small | MiniMax M3 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| LongBench v2 | 70.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Multimodal & Grounded

- Winner: Directional only
- Inkling 2 Small public-lane score: 86.6 (#12/59)
- MiniMax M3 public-lane score: 58.3 (#48/59)

| Benchmark | Inkling 2 Small | MiniMax M3 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| CharXiv | 87.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| CharXiv w/o tools | 85.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Chartography (no tools) | 36.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Chartography (tools) | 80.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| BabyVision | 68.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| BabyVision w/ Python | 93.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| ScreenSpot Pro | 83.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| PerceptionBench | 64.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MathVision | 92.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| OfficeQA Pro | Coming soon | 45.1% | Coming soon |
| OmniDocBench 1.5 | Coming soon | 91.6% | Coming soon |
| MMMU-Pro | Coming soon | 78.1% | Coming soon |
| VideoMMMU | Coming soon | 84.6% | Coming soon |
| Video-MME (with subtitle) | Coming soon | 85.4% | Coming soon |

### Knowledge

- Winner: Directional only
- Inkling 2 Small public-lane score: 60.4 (Estimated · #46/178)
- MiniMax M3 public-lane score: 55 (Supported · #61/178)

| Benchmark | Inkling 2 Small | MiniMax M3 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 93% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| GPQA-D | 93.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| GPQA Diamond (Vals) | Coming soon | 92.7% | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro (Vals) | Coming soon | 84.2% | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Not comparable
- Inkling 2 Small public-lane score: Coming soon
- MiniMax M3 public-lane score: 93.8 (#6/157)

### Mathematics

- Winner: Not comparable
- Inkling 2 Small public-lane score: 85.9 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)
- MiniMax M3 public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Inkling 2 Small | MiniMax M3 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| HMMT Feb 2026 | 95.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Apex | 63.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| USAMO 2026 | Coming soon | 85.7% | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Inkling 2 Small or MiniMax M3?

Inkling 2 Small has the higher overall point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.

### Where is the biggest gap between Inkling 2 Small and MiniMax M3?

The widest category gap is in multimodal & grounded, where the averages are 86.6 for Inkling 2 Small and 58.3 for MiniMax M3.

### How many benchmarks does Inkling 2 Small cover on BenchLM?

Inkling 2 Small currently has 25 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

### How many benchmarks does MiniMax M3 cover on BenchLM?

MiniMax M3 currently has 28 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

## Related Comparisons

- [Inkling 2 Small vs Inkling-Small](/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-inkling-small)
- [MiniMax M3 vs Inkling-Small](/compare/inkling-small-vs-minimax-m3)
- [Inkling 2 Small vs Inkling](/compare/inkling-vs-inkling-2-small)
- [MiniMax M3 vs Inkling](/compare/inkling-vs-minimax-m3)

## Explore More

- [Inkling 2 Small profile](/models/inkling-2-small)
- [MiniMax M3 profile](/models/minimax-m3)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)