Function templates inlining

It is typical to think that inline function is kind of space-time trade-off. We waste some memory (redundant code) to avoid some operations (function call). But what in case of function that is invoked only once? In that case inlining will make code also smaller (probably), because there is no code related to function call, also additional compiler optimization is possible.
Such idea might be especially tempting when dealing with function templates. It is quite common for template definitions to "explode" as used with different types of parameters (especially when dealing with kind of metaprogramming). When usage for each version of the function is very limited (e.g. once), "inline" may allow compiler to produce code that is smaller than without inlining.
Of course it is not always true, as "inline" is merely hint for compiler.
Here is output from my one case test - 3 function templates used with different argument types before and after inlining.
For "gcc -O1" (ver. 4.5.3)
Size of object files - 238kB inlined, 244kB not inlined, size of executable 1354 v.s. 1357kB.
As I've checked with "nm" not every function definition instantiated from template was inlined.