Which is cheaper, MiniMax M3 and Inkling Small?

MiniMax M3 has the lowest input price. Per 1M input tokens: MiniMax M3 from $0.28 and Inkling Small from $0.45.

Which has the larger context window, MiniMax M3 and Inkling Small?

MiniMax M3 has the largest context window: MiniMax M3 1,000,000 tokens and Inkling Small 524,288 tokens.

Can I switch between MiniMax M3 and Inkling Small without changing my code?

Yes. All of them are served through FastRouter's OpenAI-compatible API, so switching is a change of the model parameter (minimax/minimax-m3, thinkingmachines/inkling-small).

MiniMax M3 vs Inkling Small

Side-by-side pricing per provider, context window, benchmark scores and speed, all on one OpenAI-compatible API.

Estimate monthly cost for these models

MiniMax M3 Minimaxminimax/minimax-m3

Inkling Small Thinking Machinesthinkingmachines/inkling-small

Creator

Minimax

Thinking Machines

Released

May 31, 2026

Jul 30, 2026

Context window

524K

Max output

512K

262K

Input / 1MLowest provider price

$0.28$0.28–$0.30 across 2

$0.45

Output / 1MLowest provider price

$1.10$1.10–$1.20 across 2

$1.20

Providers

IntelligenceArtificial Analysis index

18.9

12.9

LatencyMedian time to first token

3.1s

—

ThroughputMedian tokens per second

<1 t/s

—

Accepts

Text, Image, Video

Text, Image, Audio

Produces

Text

Tool calling

Yes

Structured output

Yes

Reasoning

Yes

MiniMax M3 vs Inkling Small: summary

MiniMax M3 and Inkling Small are both available through FastRouter's OpenAI-compatible API, so switching between them is a change of model id, not a new integration.

MiniMax M3, from Minimax, has a 1,000,000-token context window, costs from $0.28/1M input and $1.10/1M output tokens across 2 providers and scores 18.9 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

Inkling Small, from Thinking Machines, has a 524,288-token context window, costs $0.45/1M input and $1.20/1M output tokens and scores 12.9 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

MiniMax M3 is the cheapest on input, 1.6× cheaper than the next model, MiniMax M3 has the largest context window and MiniMax M3 scores highest for intelligence.

Switch with one line

client = OpenAI(base_url="https://api.fastrouter.ai/api/v1", api_key="<FASTROUTER_API_KEY>") client.chat.completions.create(model="minimax/minimax-m3", messages=[...]) # or client.chat.completions.create(model="thinkingmachines/inkling-small", messages=[...])

Full API docs

Frequently asked questions

More comparisons

Benchmark scores sourced from ArtificialAnalysis