Thinking Machines
Inkling Small
Inkling Small is an open-weight multimodal mixture-of-experts model from Thinking Machines Lab, with 12B active parameters out of 276B total.
At a glance
- Input / 1M
- $0.45
- Output / 1M
- $1.20
- Context
- 524K
- Max output
- 262K
- Intelligence
- 25.7
- Released
- Jul 2026
Pricing
Inkling Small API pricing
Per-token rates, plus what common tasks actually cost.
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.45 |
|---|---|
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $1.20 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.10 |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available |
Chat message
2K in, 500 out
$1.50
per 1,000 requests
Coding task
30K in, 4K out
$18.30
per 1,000 requests
Long document summary
150K in, 2K out
$69.90
per 1,000 requests
Benchmarks
Inkling Small benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
25.7
Coding index
52.9
Agentic index
23.5
Specs
Context window and capabilities
What it can read, what it can write, and which API features it supports.
- Context window
- 524K tokens
- Max output
- 262K tokens
- Input types
- Audio, Image, Text
- Output types
- Text
- Reasoning effort
- Max, High, Medium, Low, Minimal, None
- Release date
- July 30, 2026
- Tool calling
- Structured outputs
- JSON mode
- Reasoning
- Temperature
- Stop sequences
- Deterministic seed
- Verbosity control
Compare
Inkling Small vs other models
See how Inkling Small stacks up head to head on price, benchmarks, and features.
Inkling Small vs MiniMax M3
Thinking Machines vs MiniMax
See comparisonInkling Small vs Kimi K2.6
Thinking Machines vs Moonshot AI
See comparison
Inkling Small vs Qwen3.6 Plus
Thinking Machines vs Qwen
See comparison
Inkling Small vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Thinking Machines vs Google
See comparisonInkling Small vs MiMo-V2.5-Pro
Thinking Machines vs Xiaomi
See comparisonInkling Small vs Grok 4.20
Thinking Machines vs xAI
See comparisonMore Inkling Small comparisons
Alternatives
Inkling Small alternatives
Similar models worth considering, and where each one has the edge.
MiniMax
MiniMax M3
Moonshot AI
Kimi K2.6
Qwen
Qwen3.6 Plus
Want to learn about other models? Browse all models
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How much does Inkling Small cost?
Inkling Small costs $0.45 per 1M input tokens and $1.20 per 1M output tokens through the API. A typical chat message costs about $1.50 per 1,000 messages.
What is the context window of Inkling Small?
Inkling Small accepts up to 524K tokens of input and can write up to 262K tokens in a single response.
What is the best alternative to Inkling Small?
MiniMax M3 from MiniMax is a strong alternative. It offers: higher intelligence score, larger 1.05m context, accepts video.
Can I use Inkling Small alongside other models?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to Inkling Small and any other models you pick at the same time, so you can compare answers side by side.
Try Inkling Small next to every other model.
Use Inkling Small alongside all the other models. Use one at a time, or multiple together. Get the best answer from every AI.