# Inkling-Small vs LFM3-1.7B

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Inkling-Small and LFM3-1.7B across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/inkling-small-vs-lfm3-1-7b
- Last updated: October 27, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 9
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5.8

## Quick Verdict

Inkling-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-Small has the higher overall point estimate 52.84 to 22.99. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.
- The clearest category separation is in knowledge, where the averages are 54.5 for Inkling-Small and 25.5 for LFM3-1.7B.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is Terminal-Bench 2.1 in Agentic, with scores of 64.7% and 12.9%.
- LFM3-1.7B is the cheaper option on output tokens, which matters if you expect large responses or heavy interactive use.
- Inkling-Small also has the larger context window at 1M.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Inkling-Small | LFM3-1.7B |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | Thinking Machines Lab | LiquidAI |
| Type | Open Weight | Open Weight |
| Reasoning | Hybrid | Reasoning |
| Context | 1M | 256K |
| Overall Score | 52.84 | 22.99 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 28 | 24 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $0.58 / $1.44 | $0.00 / $0.00 |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Directional only
- Inkling-Small public-lane score: 36.9 (Supported · #81/134)
- LFM3-1.7B public-lane score: 14.4 (Estimated · #123/134)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | LFM3-1.7B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 64.7% | 12.9% | Inkling-Small |
| BrowseComp | 77.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MCP Atlas | 79.6% | 32.6% | Inkling-Small |
| Toolathlon-Verified | 54.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals) | 55.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| AutomationBench | Coming soon | 41.3% | Coming soon |
| BFCL v4 | Coming soon | 71.4% | Coming soon |
| τ³-bench results | Coming soon | 68.0% | Coming soon |
| WebArena-Verified | Coming soon | 38.4% | Coming soon |
| ToolSandbox | Coming soon | 80.36% | Coming soon |
| Claw-Eval | Coming soon | 68.6% | Coming soon |
| HLE w/ tools | Coming soon | 13.9% | Coming soon |
| LiveClaw | Coming soon | 45.60% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Directional only
- Inkling-Small public-lane score: 38 (Supported · #74/155)
- LFM3-1.7B public-lane score: 13 (Estimated · #142/155)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | LFM3-1.7B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 80.2% | 43.4% | Inkling-Small |
| SWE-bench Pro | 55.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 64.7% | 12.9% | Inkling-Small |
| SciCode | 48.7% | 28.5% | Inkling-Small |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals) | 85.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE-bench (Vals) | 82.2% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE Multilingual | Coming soon | 23% | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench v6 | Coming soon | 73.5% | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench Pro | Coming soon | 31.7% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- Inkling-Small public-lane score: 55 (Unranked · 4 rankable rows)
- LFM3-1.7B public-lane score: 61.3 (Unranked · 1 rankable row)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | LFM3-1.7B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| ARC-AGI-2 | 40.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| CritPt | 8.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 84.00% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| RULER (128K) | Coming soon | 65.56% | Coming soon |

### Multimodal & Grounded

- Winner: Not comparable
- Inkling-Small public-lane score: 67.5 (#41/58)
- LFM3-1.7B public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | LFM3-1.7B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| MMMU-Pro | 74% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| CharXiv | 81.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| CharXiv w/o tools | 77.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Knowledge

- Winner: Directional only
- Inkling-Small public-lane score: 54.5 (Supported · #64/189)
- LFM3-1.7B public-lane score: 25.5 (Estimated · #175/189)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | LFM3-1.7B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 89.5% | 63.4% | Inkling-Small |
| GPQA-D | 89.5% | 63.4% | Inkling-Small |
| HLE | 47.8% | 7.2% | Inkling-Small |
| HLE w/o tools | 31.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| GPQA Diamond (Vals) | 83.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro (Vals) | 85.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Inkling-Small
- Inkling-Small public-lane score: 93.3 (#10/156)
- LFM3-1.7B public-lane score: 71.7 (#76/156)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | LFM3-1.7B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 82.2% | 73.0% | Inkling-Small |
| IFEval | Coming soon | 96.7% | Coming soon |
| Multi-IF | Coming soon | 89.10% | Coming soon |
| IFStruct | Coming soon | 93.72% | Coming soon |

### Mathematics

- Winner: Not comparable
- Inkling-Small public-lane score: 69.8 (#5/12)
- LFM3-1.7B public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | LFM3-1.7B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| AIME26 | 95.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| HMMT Feb 2026 | 90.2% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3) | 46.316% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4) | 17.073% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Inkling-Small or LFM3-1.7B?

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

### Where is the biggest gap between Inkling-Small and LFM3-1.7B?

The widest category gap is in knowledge, where the averages are 54.5 for Inkling-Small and 25.5 for LFM3-1.7B.

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

Inkling-Small currently has 28 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

### How many benchmarks does LFM3-1.7B cover on BenchLM?

LFM3-1.7B currently has 24 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

## Related Comparisons

- [Inkling-Small vs Inkling](/compare/inkling-vs-inkling-small)
- [LFM3-1.7B vs Inkling](/compare/inkling-vs-lfm3-1-7b)
- [Inkling-Small vs LFM3-1.7B-Base](/compare/inkling-small-vs-lfm3-1-7b-base)
- [LFM3-1.7B vs LFM3-1.7B-Base](/compare/lfm3-1-7b-vs-lfm3-1-7b-base)

## Explore More

- [Inkling-Small profile](/models/inkling-small)
- [LFM3-1.7B profile](/models/lfm3-1-7b)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)