Thinking Machines: Inkling (free)
Analysis Summary
Thinking Machines: Inkling is listed as a free multimodal model with a 1M-token context window, vision, tool use, and function calling. It accepts text, images, and audio, which gives teams a potentially flexible interface for document and media workflows. The input contains no benchmark results for reasoning, coding, instruction following, or agentic reliability, so capability claims beyond the listed features would be premature.
For an agency, its strongest near-term role is controlled experimentation: testing long-document prompts, media intake, or tool-connected prototypes without token charges. Those features are useful, but they do not demonstrate that the model can reliably produce client-ready copy or complete multi-step actions. Keep it out of unsupervised production workflows until task-specific evaluations confirm quality and error handling. Its free access and broad context make evaluation easy, not a substitute for validation.
Assessed September 23, 2026
Editorial notes
Inkling combines free access, a 1M-token context, image and audio input, and tool support. Its reasoning and production reliability remain unverified because no benchmark data is supplied.
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
Inkling combines free access, a 1M-token context, image and audio input, and tool support. Its reasoning and production reliability remain unverified because no benchmark data is supplied.
How Thinking Machines: Inkling (free) compares
Its 1M-token context window is larger than 95% of the models we list. Thinking Machines: Inkling (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 (free)
Inkling is an open-weight multimodal mixture-of-experts model from Thinking Machines Lab, with 41B active parameters out of 975B total. It is designed for general-purpose reasoning, coding, agentic and tool-use systems,..
Frequently asked questions about Thinking Machines: Inkling (free)
How much does Thinking Machines: Inkling (free) cost?
Thinking Machines: Inkling (free) is currently available for free via OpenRouter.
What is the context window of Thinking Machines: Inkling (free)?
Thinking Machines: Inkling (free) has a context window of 1,048,576 tokens (1M).
What can Thinking Machines: Inkling (free) do?
Thinking Machines: Inkling (free) supports image/vision input, tool use, and function calling.
Who created Thinking Machines: Inkling (free)?
Thinking Machines: Inkling (free) is developed by Thinking Machines and was released on July 17, 2026.