OptimToken › Models by maker › Thinking Machines

Thinking Machines (Inkling) API pricing

As of 2026-11-14, the OptimToken catalogue holds 3 Thinking Machines models. By price tier, 1 is Mid-range and 2 Budget. The cheapest is Inkling 2 Small at $0.30 per 1M input tokens and $1.00 per 1M output tokens. The most expensive is Inkling at $1.00 input and $4.05 output, 4.0x the cheapest on blended price (30% input, 70% output). These are the prices we quote: a model sold by several hosts has other rates, listed on its own page.

Thinking Machines models and prices

Thinking Machines models, cheapest first on blended price (30% input, 70% output). USD per 1M tokens, data snapshot 2026-11-14.
Model	Input	Output	Batch (in / out)	Cache read	Context	Licence
Inkling 2 Small	$0.30	$1.00	not published	$0.03	1M	Unknown
Inkling Small	$0.45	$1.20	$0.36 / $0.96	$0.10	524K	Open source (Apache 2.0)
Inkling	$1.00	$4.05	not published	$0.17	524K	Open source (Apache 2.0)

Published discounts: a prompt-cache read rate for all 3 and a batch rate for 1 of the 3. The most recent by release date is Inkling 2 Small (2026-11). Arena ELO scores (as of 2026-11-09) exist for 2 of the 3; the highest is Inkling at 1444.

Licences

Of the 3, 2 are open source: their weights are published under the Apache 2.0 licence, OSI-approved with no field-of-use limit, so they can be self-hosted as well as bought by the token. No licence is recorded for the other 1, so this page does not say whether it can be self-hosted. Licences are as recorded in this catalogue: check the maker's own terms before relying on one.

Price changes since tracking began

Our daily price archive began on 2026-08-15 and holds a record for all 3 models. The price we quote has changed for 1 of them, 5 times in all, 2 of those changes flagged as a change of quoted host rather than a repricing. The most recent was to Inkling on 2026-10-07: +0.5% on the blended price (30% input, 70% output) (quoted host changed, not a repricing). One model joined after tracking began: Inkling 2 Small, on 2026-11-14. Last checked against the 2026-11-14 snapshot.

Each row is a model's most recent change. Its own page has the full history.

Model	Date	Old price (in / out)	New price (in / out)	Blended change	Changes in all
Inkling	2026-10-07	$0.95 / $4.05	$1.00 / $4.05	+0.5% (quoted host changed, not a repricing)	5

Other makers

Models by maker: every model in the catalogue, including makers with fewer than 3.

These are list prices.

Your real cost also depends on caching and batching, negotiated discounts, marketplace agreements, and the contracts you already have. OptimNow audits exactly that.

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