# Inkling-Small vs Nanbeige4.2-3B (slim)

> Inkling-Small scores 67 (B) to Nanbeige4.2-3B's 61 (C) for open-weight models you run yourself. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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Inkling-Small scores 67 (B) on agent readiness against Nanbeige4.2-3B's 61 (C), and leads in 2 of 4 scored categories. Nanbeige4.2-3B leads on reach. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- Inkling-Small: B 67, rank #13 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/inkling-small.min.md
- Nanbeige4.2-3B: C 61, rank #78 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nanbeige-4-2-3b.min.md
- Inkling-Small, good for Teams with 256 GB or more of datacentre GPU memory who want an open multimodal agent model with audio input and adjustable thinking. Ahead on Risk, 70 against 55; Documentation and upkeep, 87 against 72.
- Nanbeige4.2-3B, good for Local agents that need tool calling and a long context on a laptop or a small GPU Ahead on Reach, 85 against 55.

| Category | Inkling-Small | Nanbeige4.2-3B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 55 | 85 |
| Risk (20%) | 70 | 55 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 85 | 85 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 87 | 72 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Inkling-Small | Nanbeige4.2-3B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Thinking Machines Lab | Nanbeige LLM Lab (BOSS Zhipin) |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 (Hub metadata only; the repository has no LICENSE file) |
| Last release | 2026-07-31 | 2026-09-11 |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Reach, Nanbeige4.2-3B +30: Inkling-Small 55 (Memory 5 of 30, the smallest 4-bit build is Thinking Machines' NVFP4 at 170.8 GB, about 205 GB with a fifth added, so it needs 256 GB.); Nanbeige4.2-3B 85 (Memory 30, the smallest build from Nanbeige is the FP8 repository (the 8-bit GPTQ one is the same size), 5.19 GB, and 5.19 GB × 1.2 = 6.2 GB, within 16 GB.)
- Risk, Inkling-Small +15: Inkling-Small 70 (File safety 25, safetensors only and no repository code to run.); Nanbeige4.2-3B 55 (File safety 15, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files (25).)
- Documentation and upkeep, Inkling-Small +15: Inkling-Small 87 (Model card 17 of 20, everything but a dated knowledge cut-off, counting Thinking Machines' own model card page.); Nanbeige4.2-3B 72 (Model card 17, Intended use, limitations, the architecture, the parameters (3B outside the embeddings), the context and the languages (in the metadata) are on t…)