SmolVLA 450M vs Inkling
At a Glance
| Compare | SmolVLA 450MHugging Face LeRobot | InklingThinking Machines Lab |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence, Cost, and Efficiency | ||
| IntelligenceHigher is better · MM Intelligence v2.5 | UnrankedNot in the 46-model eligible cohort | #34 of 4645.4 score · 3/3 sources · complete |
| CostLower is better · Published-token output estimate | UnrankedNot in the 44-model eligible cohort | #18 of 44$0.090 per LiveBench case |
| EfficiencyHigher is better · MM Efficiency v1.5 | UnrankedNot in the 38-model eligible cohort | #28 of 3848.1 score · 3/3 sources · complete |
| Pricing and Limits | ||
| Context windowMaximum documented tokens | Not reported | 1,049K |
| Model facts checked | Aug 29, 2026View model evidence → | Sep 3, 2026View model evidence → |
Available Benchmarks
Side-by-Side Facts
| Field | SmolVLA 450M | Inkling |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Hugging Face LeRobot | Thinking Machines Lab |
| Family | SmolVLA | Inkling |
| Model | SmolVLA 450M | Inkling |
| Version | 450M | Inkling |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2025-06-03 | 2026-07-15 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Unknown | Unknown |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Robot state | Text, Image, Video, Audio |
| Output modalities | Robot action | Text |
| Context window | Unknown | 1,049K |
| Total parameters | 450M | 975B |
| Active parameters | Unknown | 41B |
| License | apache-2.0 | apache-2.0 |
| Open weights | Yes | Yes |
| API available | No | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Provider access | Unknown | Deepinfra (Standard), Fireworks Ai (Standard), Openrouter (Standard), Together Ai (Standard) |
| Capabilities | asynchronous-inference, fine-tuning, low-cost-hardware, manipulation | agents, chat, coding, generation, reasoning, tools, vision |
| Robotics model type | Vision-language-action model | Unknown |
| Action representation | Continuous action chunks from a flow-matching action expert | Unknown |
| Control architecture | SmolVLM2 backbone with flow-matching action expert | Unknown |
| Inference location | On device | Unknown |
| Native control rate (Hz) | Unknown | Unknown |
| Supported embodiments | SO-100, SO-101, LeKiwi, LIBERO Franka | Unknown |
| Training data | Compatibly licensed LeRobot community datasets totaling fewer than 30,000 episodes in the cited release. | Unknown |
SmolVLA 450M Capabilities
Inkling Capabilities
Primary Evidence
Sources and Freshness
Questions
SmolVLA 450M vs Inkling FAQs
Is SmolVLA 450M or Inkling better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both SmolVLA 450M and Inkling, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.
Which is cheaper, SmolVLA 450M or Inkling?+
Only Inkling has a directly sourced input price: $0.95 per million tokens. Only Inkling has a directly sourced output price: $4.05 per million tokens.
Which has a larger context window, SmolVLA 450M or Inkling?+
Neither model has a larger sourced context window in this comparison. SmolVLA 450M is — and Inkling is 1,049K.
Which performs better in benchmarks, SmolVLA 450M or Inkling?+
There is no overall benchmark winner: At least two independently verified, protocol-matched benchmarks are required for an overall winner.
Can SmolVLA 450M or Inkling be self-hosted?+
Both models have the same recorded self-hosting status: supported. SmolVLA 450M is open weight; Inkling is open weight.
Can SmolVLA 450M and Inkling understand images?+
SmolVLA 450M is documented with image input; Inkling is documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.
Which can generate longer answers, SmolVLA 450M or Inkling?+
Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. SmolVLA 450M is — and Inkling is —.
Do SmolVLA 450M and Inkling support reasoning and tool use?+
SmolVLA 450M: image input. Inkling: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Feature support does not establish relative quality.
Which is available from more inference providers, SmolVLA 450M or Inkling?+
SmolVLA 450M has 0 sourced provider routes; Inkling has 4, so Inkling has broader tracked availability.
Which offers better value, SmolVLA 450M or Inkling?+
There is no universal value winner. Compare the input and output prices above with the matched benchmark result for your workload: cheaper tokens can be offset by different quality, token usage, latency, or provider availability.