Inkling vs MiniMax M3
Inkling took 8 min 30 s and $0.21 at list price, MiniMax M3 took 33 min 3 s and $0.21 at list price. MiniMax M3 took 3.9× as long, and both cost about the same.
Inkling
Thinking Machines · $4.05/M out · free route · 4 HN pts
MiniMax M3
MiniMax · $1.20/M out · 144 HN pts
Pelican
Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle
Watch
Draw a mechanical wristwatch that shows the current local time, with a sweeping seconds hand and a date window. Make it look expensive.
Landing
Build the landing page for Lumen Cycles, a Copenhagen workshop that builds custom cargo bikes to order. Make it look like a real brand you would trust with 4,000 euros.
Breakout
Make a Breakout game I can play right now with the keyboard or the mouse. Give it several levels, a score and some juice.
Logo
Design a logo for Night Heron, an independent bookshop that only opens after dark.
About
Write the opening of the About us page for Patchbay, a three-person studio in Rotterdam that repairs vintage synthesizers. About 150 words.
Patchbay is a three-person repair studio in Rotterdam dedicated to vintage synthesizers. We work on analog circuits, replace failing capacitors and resistors, calibrate unstable oscillators, and restore instruments that have been silent for years. Our bench sees early Japanese mono synths, European string machines, American polys, and large modular systems. We treat each repair as a specific problem rather than a routine job, because these machines were built differently and fail differently. The studio grew out of our own need for careful, local repairs. Over time, musicians, collectors, and producers across the Netherlands started bringing us gear they could not trust elsewhere. We open every case with the same approach: diagnose the fault properly, use appropriate parts, and test the result thoroughly. We do not apply quick fixes or ignore underlying issues. Whether your synthesizer suffers from tuning drift, dead voices, noisy outputs, or an unknown electrical fault, we are in Rotterdam to find the cause and return it to reliable working condition.
Patchbay began in a cluttered apartment in Rotterdam, where three friends spent weekends coaxing old synthesizers back to life. What started as a shared obsession quickly outgrew the living room. In 2016, we opened our first proper workshop in a converted warehouse on the south side of the city, and we have been soldering, calibrating, and listening closely ever since.
We are a small team of three. Niels handles the analog work, coaxing warm tones from aging oscillators and reluctant filters. Marijn focuses on digital systems and the occasional stubborn MIDI quirk. Sanna manages restorations, sourcing rare components and keeping long projects on track. Between us, we have decades of experience with the machines that shaped electronic music.
Every synth that passes through our doors carries decades of sound inside it. Our job is to make sure that story continues.
Specs and numbers
| Inkling | MiniMax M3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Thinking Machines | MiniMax |
| Made in | US | China |
| Released | 17 Jul 2026 | 31 May 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | free route (list $1.00/M) | $0.30 |
| Price out, per M tokens | free route (list $4.05/M) | $1.20 |
| Context | 524,288 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | open | open |
| Hacker News points | 4 | 144 |
| Time for the six prompts | 8 min 30 s | 33 min 3 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.21 | $0.21 |
Both cost about the same at list price: $0.21 and $0.21. Inkling was faster: 24 min 32 s less in total, and faster on 5 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play.
Rebuild this screen experiment: Inkling's rebuild matched the screenshot at 51%; MiniMax M3 was not in it. Tea Garden experiment: Inkling's game passed 5 of 5 checks; MiniMax M3 was not in it.