Inkling Small is $0.05 cheaper per 1M input tokens (10% lower; 1.11x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
Inkling Small vs Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)
Pick Inkling Small when budget and context both matter.
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Data confirmed:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick Inkling Small when budget and context both matter.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Inkling Small is estimated at $1.05 vs $2 for Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image), saving $0.95 (47.5% lower).
Cost-first pickInkling Small
Context-first pickInkling Small
Sample savings$0.9547.5%
10x traffic gap$9.5
Inkling Small is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $9.5. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Inkling Small stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | Inkling Small | Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Inkling Small | $2.85 | $4 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Inkling Small | $1.65 | $3.5 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Inkling Small | $6.45 | $15.5 |
Inkling Small is $1.8 cheaper per 1M output tokens (60% lower; 2.5x difference).
Inkling Small has 917.5K more context (8x larger).
Inkling Small is $0.95 cheaper on the standard workload (47.5% lower).
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.
Quick Decision
Inkling Small has the lower input price; Inkling Small has the lower output price; Inkling Small offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Inkling Small is cheaper for the standard workload.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $1.05 for Inkling Small and $2 for Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image).
Choose Inkling Small when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.
Choose Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Inkling Small is estimated at $1.05 vs $2 for Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image), saving $0.95 (47.5% lower).
- Inkling Small is $0.95 cheaper on the standard workload (47.5% lower).
- Inkling Small is $0.05 cheaper per 1M input tokens (10% lower; 1.11x difference).
- Inkling Small is $1.8 cheaper per 1M output tokens (60% lower; 2.5x difference).
- Inkling Small has 917.5K more context (8x larger).
| Feature | Inkling Small (Thinking Machines) | Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) (Google) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $0.45 | $0.5 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $1.2 | $3 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $1.05 | $2 |
| Context Window | 1.05M | 131.07K |
| Release Date |
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | Inkling Small | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Inkling Small is estimated at $1.05 vs $2 for Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image), saving $0.95 (47.5% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | Inkling Small | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | Inkling Small | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | Inkling Small | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- Inkling Small (free) can replace Inkling Small when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Inkling (free) can replace Inkling Small when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) can replace Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Gemma 4 31B (free) can replace Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
- Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 offers 1.31M context with $0.17 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash Latest offers 1.31M context with $0.11 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 · DeepSeek · #1
- MiMo-V2.5 · Xiaomi · #2
- Hy3 · Tencent · #3
- Ox Alpha · stealth · #4
Cheaper alternatives
Review low-cost models sorted by a standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.
Open cheapest modelsLarger context alternatives
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Open provider hubsThinking Machines catalog
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Open Thinking Machines modelsGoogle catalog
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Open Google modelsInkling Small is an open-weight multimodal mixture-of-experts model from Thinking Machines Lab, with 12B active parameters out of 276B total. It is positioned as the smaller, more efficient member of...
Gemini 3.1 Flash Image, a.k.a. "Nano Banana 2," is Google’s latest state of the art image generation and editing model, delivering Pro-level visual quality at Flash speed. It combines advanced...