Thinking Machines: Inkling SmallWork with me

Thinking Machines: Inkling Small

byThinking Machines

Inkling Small is a reasoning model from Thinking Machines released on Jul 30, 2026. It reads text, images and audio and writes text, with a 524K token context window and up to 1.05M tokens per reply.

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It costs $0.50 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens. Cached input bills at $0.10, 80% less than fresh input.

It supports tool calling, structured JSON output and prompt caching, and its weights are open, so you can host it yourself.

11 providers serve it, including Deep Infra, Vercel AI Gateway and Baseten. The lowest input price is $0.45 per million tokens at Deep Infra.

Modalities
In / out price
$0.50 / $1.20 per 1M
Context
524K
Max output
1.05M
Released
Jul 30, 2026
Knowledge cutoff
n/a
  • Tool calling
  • Structured output
  • Reasoning
  • Prompt caching
  • Open weights
  • Free to use

Inkling Small pricing

USD, as listed on Oct 15, 2026. Most bills are input heavy, so the cached input rate matters as much as the headline price.

Input$0.50 / 1M tokens
Output$1.20 / 1M tokens
Cached input (read)$0.10 / 1M tokens

Inkling Small providers

11 providers serve it, including Deep Infra, Vercel AI Gateway and Baseten. The lowest input price is $0.45 per million tokens at Deep Infra. Each host sets its own price and limits, so the cheapest one is not always the one with the longest context.

ProviderInput /MOutput /MCache read /MContextMax output
Deep Infra$0.45$1.20$0.10524K1.05M
Vercel AI Gateway$0.45$1.20$0.101M1M
Baseten$0.50$1.20$0.101.05M33K
Hugging Face$0.50$1.20–524K1.05M
Eden AI$0.45$1.20$0.10524K1.05M
Arcee$0.50$1.20$0.10262K262K
NanoGPT$0.50$1.20$0.10524K33K
Pioneer$0.50$1.20$0.101M131K
LLMTR$0.58$1.44–262K262K
AI/ML API$0.7977$1.98$0.1595524K262K
Kilo Gatewayn/an/a–1.05M262K

What Inkling Small costs per month

Pick a workload close to yours or type your own volumes.

Inkling Small per month
$32.10
Without caching
$50.10
Per request
$0.0011

Supported request parameters

What you can set when you call Inkling Small through an OpenAI compatible API.

  • Toolstools
  • Structured outputsstructured_outputs
  • Reasoningreasoning
  • Temperaturetemperature

Alternatives to Inkling Small

Models that take the same inputs and call tools, closest in price, cheaper ones first.

  • Reads text, images, files, audio and video. Tool calling, structured output, reasoning. Served by 25 providers.

    by googleFeb 18, 2026$0.25/M input tokens$1.50/M output tokens25 providers

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    by xiaomiSep 22, 20261.05M context$0.435/M input tokens$0.87/M output tokens17 providers

  • Reads text, images, files, audio and video. Tool calling, structured output, reasoning.

    by vivgridMar 3, 2026$0.25/M input tokens$1.50/M output tokens

  • Reads text, images, files, audio and video. Tool calling, structured output, reasoning. Served by 9 providers.

    by googleMar 20, 2025$0.25/M input tokens$1.50/M output tokens9 providers

  • Reads text, images, audio and video. Tool calling, structured output, reasoning. Served by 36 providers.

    by qwenApr 1, 2026$0.248/M input tokens$1.49/M output tokens36 providers

  • Reads text, images, audio and video. Tool calling, structured output, reasoning. Served by 2 providers.

    by perceptronSep 25, 2026$0.15/M input tokens$1.50/M output tokens2 providers

More from Thinking Machines

  • Reads text and images. Tool calling, structured output, reasoning. Served by 22 providers.

    by thinkingmachinesJul 15, 2026$3.74/M input tokens$9.36/M output tokens22 providers

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Inkling Small questions

How much does the Inkling Small API cost?

$0.50 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens, with cached input at $0.10. The estimator on this page turns that into a monthly bill for your own workload.

What is the context window of Inkling Small?

524,288 tokens of input, and it can write up to 1,048,576 tokens in one reply. As a rough guide, a million tokens is around 750,000 English words.

Which providers serve Inkling Small?

11 providers serve it, including Deep Infra, Vercel AI Gateway and Baseten. The lowest input price is $0.45 per million tokens at Deep Infra. Prices differ by host, so the Providers table on this page lists each one with its input and output price.

Does Inkling Small support tool calling?

Yes. It accepts tool definitions and can return JSON that matches a schema, which is what an agent needs to call your APIs.

Is Inkling Small open source?

Its weights are published, so you can run it on your own hardware or a cloud of your choice. Read the license before commercial use.

When was Inkling Small released?

Jul 30, 2026.

Catalog data from models.dev (MIT licensed), refreshed daily, last on Oct 15, 2026. The summary is written from these facts.

Building on Inkling Small?

I test your real tasks on it and the two closest alternatives, then ship the agent on whichever wins on cost and accuracy.

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