Inkling API pricing
thinkingmachines · Mid-range price tier · Apache 2.0 · released 2026-07. Prices in USD per 1 million tokens. Data snapshot: 2026-11-12.
A support ticket workload of 100K requests a month costs $352.50 on Inkling; the next cheaper model in the Mid-range price tier for this workload, Sakana Namazu, does it for $342.50. The price we quote for Inkling has changed 5 times since 2026-08-15, most recently on 2026-10-07 when the quoted host changed (+0.5%); it is now the 48th cheapest of 113 models in the Mid-range price tier. Only one host, Together, sells it, so there is no second price to shop. It is rated a stable release but does not meet all four criteria of the FinOps Friendly badge.
- Input: $1.00 per 1M tokens
- Output: $4.05 per 1M tokens
- Batch API (in/out): Not published
- Prompt-cache read: $0.17 per 1M tokens
- Context window: 524K tokens
- Arena ELO: 1443 as of 2026-11-08
Market position
On blended price ($3.135 per 1M tokens at 30% input, 70% output) it is cheaper than 58% of models in the Mid-range price tier: 48th cheapest of 113. Across every price tier it is cheaper than 31% of priced text models in the catalogue: 208th cheapest of 303. Its Arena ELO of 1443 ranks 48th of the 160 models that carry one, tied with 2 others, above 69% of them. With an Arena score of 1443, Inkling clears OptimNow's Standard working quality threshold: Standard (Arena 1420+), used for meeting summary, invoice processing and call summary. Each threshold is a distance below the best ranked model, which scores 1530 on Arena scores as of 8 Nov 2026.
Licence, size and capabilities
Inkling is open source: its weights are published under Apache 2.0, an OSI-approved licence with no field-of-use limit, so it can be self-hosted as well as bought by the token. Its published size is 975B parameters. Listed capabilities: Text, Vision, Audio, Reasoning, Agents. Filling its 524K context window once costs $0.524 in input tokens at list price.
Pricing by host
A host is a company that runs the model and sells it by the token: the model maker, a cloud platform like Amazon Bedrock, Azure or Vertex, or an independent host. One model, several hosts, and often several prices. This model is sold by 1 host. The price we quote elsewhere on this page is marked. We quote one host's rate so that models stay comparable; it is not a recommendation to buy there.
Together is the only host with a published rate, $1.00 input / $4.05 output per 1M tokens, which is the price we quote.
| Host | Input $/1M | Output $/1M |
|---|---|---|
| Together (price we quote) | $1.00 | $4.05 |
List prices as published on 2026-11-12, via OpenRouter. Negotiated rates, committed-use discounts and provisioned capacity are not shown.
Monthly cost at 100K requests, by business use case
From the after-discounts figure (prompt caching on the cached input share, batch API for async workloads, only where thinkingmachines publishes those rates), which assumes you implement both, to the list price. One figure means no discount is published.
| Use case | Tokens (in/out) | Monthly (after discounts – list) |
|---|---|---|
| Support Ticket | 1,500 / 500 | $278 – $353 |
| Knowledge Q&A | 2,000 / 800 | $408 – $524 |
| Meeting Summary | 10,000 / 1,200 | $1.4K – $1.5K |
| Marketing Content | 2,500 / 1,800 | $938 – $979 |
| Coding Task | 3,000 / 2,000 | $985 – $1.1K |
| Invoice Processing | 1,500 / 600 | $356 – $393 |
| Call Summary | 2,000 / 700 | $467 – $484 |
| Agent Workflow | 6,000 / 3,000 | $1.5K – $1.8K |
Price history
Inkling has been in our daily price archive since tracking began on 2026-08-15, when it listed at $0.95 input / $4.05 output per 1M tokens. The price we quote has changed 5 times since then, 2 of them a change of quoted host rather than a repricing. The latest change, on 2026-10-07, was +0.5% on the blended price (30% input, 70% output), to $1.00 input / $4.05 output (quoted host changed, not a repricing). Net of all changes, the blended price is +0.5% against 2026-08-15.
| Date | Old price (in / out) | New price (in / out) | Blended change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-07 | $0.95 / $4.05 | $1.00 / $4.05 | +0.5% (quoted host changed, not a repricing) |
| 2026-10-02 | $1.00 / $4.05 | $0.95 / $4.05 | -0.5% (quoted host changed, not a repricing) |
| 2026-08-30 | $0.95 / $4.05 | $1.00 / $4.05 | +0.5% |
| 2026-08-25 | $1.00 / $4.05 | $0.95 / $4.05 | -0.5% |
| 2026-08-23 | $0.95 / $4.05 | $1.00 / $4.05 | +0.5% |
Alternatives to Inkling
2 of the 4 comparable models below cost less than Inkling: Grok 4.20 undercuts it by 32%, and scores 1 Arena point higher.
- Next cheaper model in the Mid-range price tier: ERNIE-Light-DT-1.0 (Baidu) at $3.097 blended, 1% less.
- Next more expensive: DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (DeepSeek) at $3.1413 blended, under 1% more.
The nearest models in the Mid-range price tier on Arena ELO, each with its blended price and score difference against Inkling.
- Step 5 Preview (StepFun): $1.00 in / $2.70 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1443 (30% cheaper, same Arena ELO)
- Grok 4.20 (xAI): $1.25 in / $2.50 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1444 (32% cheaper, 1 ELO point higher)
- Claude Sonnet 5 (Anthropic): $2.00 in / $10.00 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1442 (142% more expensive, 1 ELO point lower)
- DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (DeepSeek): $0.111 in / $4.44 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1445 (under 1% more expensive, 2 ELO points higher)
- Cheapest within 15 Arena points: Gemma 4 26B A4B (Google), 97% cheaper, 9 ELO points lower, out of 43 models in that band.
- Highest Arena ELO within 20% of this price: Gemini 3.8 Flash (Google), 9% cheaper, 57 ELO points higher, out of 16 models in that price band.
Other models from Thinking Machines
Thinking Machines has 1 other model in the catalogue. Prices per 1M tokens, input then output.
- Inkling Small: $0.45 / $1.20
Common questions about Inkling pricing
- How much does Inkling cost?
- Inkling costs $1.00 per 1M input tokens and $4.05 per 1M output tokens at Together, the host whose rate we quote. Prices as listed on 2026-11-12.
- Which host is cheapest for Inkling?
- Together is the only host with a published rate, $1.00 input / $4.05 output per 1M tokens, which is the price we quote. Host rates as listed on 2026-11-12.
- Does Inkling offer batch or cached pricing?
- Yes, for prompt caching only. Cache reads cost $0.17 per 1M tokens, as listed on 2026-11-12. No batch pricing is published.
- What would Inkling cost per month?
- With the Support Ticket profile (1,500 input and 500 output tokens per request), 100,000 requests a month cost about $353 on Inkling at the list price quoted on 2026-11-12.
- Can Inkling be self-hosted?
- Yes. Inkling is open source: its weights are published under Apache 2.0, an OSI-approved licence with no field-of-use limit, so it can be self-hosted as well as bought by the token.
- Has the price of Inkling changed?
- Inkling has been in our daily price archive since tracking began on 2026-08-15, when it listed at $0.95 input / $4.05 output per 1M tokens. The price we quote has changed 5 times since then, 2 of them a change of quoted host rather than a repricing. The latest change, on 2026-10-07, was +0.5% on the blended price (30% input, 70% output), to $1.00 input / $4.05 output (quoted host changed, not a repricing). Net of all changes, the blended price is +0.5% against 2026-08-15.
Its weights are published, which changes what you may run yourself: the cost gap between open weights and proprietary APIs.
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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