Thinking Machines: Inkling 2 Small (free)
Analysis Summary
Thinking Machines: Inkling 2 Small (free) comes from Thinking Machines. Released in November 2026, it is one of the newest models we cover. We place it in the Efficient tier, where it sits at #27 of 740 models overall. For raw reasoning ability it ranks #27 of 451, putting it in the top quartile for overall intelligence.
Its 1M-token context window is larger than 95% of the models we list, suiting long documents, large codebases, and retrieval-heavy workloads. Crucially for business adoption, Thinking Machines: Inkling 2 Small (free) combines tool use, function calling, vision input, and step-by-step reasoning in a single model, letting teams consolidate several use cases instead of stitching together multiple services.
At $0.000 input and $0.000 output per 1M tokens, Thinking Machines: Inkling 2 Small (free) is free to use. Thinking Machines: Inkling 2 Small (free) suits cost-sensitive or high-volume deployments where efficiency matters more than topping the benchmarks.
The DFO score ranks models on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index and is refreshed as new models launch. The write-up and verdict are our own. Feedback?
DFO Verdict
Thinking Machines: Inkling 2 Small (free) currently sits at #27 of 740 models on our board. We class it as a efficient-tier model.
Benchmarks
Artificial Analysis data refreshed Nov 10, 2026. Arena ratings from the Nov 9, 2026 text leaderboard, with style control.
Artificial Analysis has not published coding or agentic results for Thinking Machines: Inkling 2 Small (free) yet. Until it does, the model sits below tested models on the Coding and AI Agents lists.
This model was released recently. Benchmark figures are preliminary and are likely to be updated as independent testing is finalised.
How Thinking Machines: Inkling 2 Small (free) compares
Thinking Machines: Inkling 2 Small (free) ranks #27 of 451 AI models we track for overall intelligence. Its 1M-token context window is larger than 95% of the models we list. Thinking Machines: Inkling 2 Small (free) is currently free to use via OpenRouter.
Dark bar = input · light bar = output, scaled to the priciest peer.
1M tokens ≈ 8 full-length novels or ~2,500 pages of business documents in a single request.
About Thinking Machines: Inkling 2 Small (free)
Inkling 2 Small is a multimodal mixture-of-experts reasoning model from Thinking Machines Lab, with 17B active parameters out of 594B total. It is the first model in the second Inkling..
Frequently asked questions about Thinking Machines: Inkling 2 Small (free)
How much does Thinking Machines: Inkling 2 Small (free) cost?
Thinking Machines: Inkling 2 Small (free) is currently available for free via OpenRouter.
What is the context window of Thinking Machines: Inkling 2 Small (free)?
Thinking Machines: Inkling 2 Small (free) has a context window of 1,048,576 tokens (1M).
What can Thinking Machines: Inkling 2 Small (free) do?
Thinking Machines: Inkling 2 Small (free) supports image/vision input, tool use, and function calling.
Who created Thinking Machines: Inkling 2 Small (free)?
Thinking Machines: Inkling 2 Small (free) is developed by Thinking Machines and was released on November 9, 2026.