# Arete-27B vs Inkling-Small (slim)

> Inkling-Small scores 67 (B) to Arete-27B's 55.1 (C) for open-weight models you run yourself. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arete-27b-vs-inkling-small.md (~8,850 tokens) · this version ~680 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arete-27b-vs-inkling-small.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arete-27b-vs-inkling-small
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-10
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Inkling-Small scores 67 (B) on agent readiness against Arete-27B's 55.1 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- Arete-27B: C 55.1, rank #123 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/arete-27b.min.md
- Inkling-Small: B 67, rank #13 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/inkling-small.min.md
- Arete-27B, good for Agents that want Qwen3.8-27B's coding and tool use without its handling of politically sensitive topics, on a 24 GB card or a 128 GB machine
- Inkling-Small, good for Teams with 256 GB or more of datacentre GPU memory who want an open multimodal agent model with audio input and adjustable thinking. Ahead on Reach, 55 against 50; Risk, 70 against 55; Agent interface, 85 against 60; Documentation and upkeep, 87 against 63.

| Category | Arete-27B | Inkling-Small |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 50 | 55 |
| Risk (20%) | 55 | 70 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 60 | 85 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 63 | 87 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Arete-27B | Inkling-Small |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Nous Research | Thinking Machines Lab |
| Last release | 2026-11-06 | 2026-07-31 |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- Agent interface, Inkling-Small +25: Arete-27B 60 (Chat template 20, a Jinja file in the repository.); Inkling-Small 85 (Chat template 20, a Jinja file in the repository.)
- Documentation and upkeep, Inkling-Small +24: Arete-27B 63 (Model card 8, no limitations, context length, languages or cut-off.); Inkling-Small 87 (Model card 17 of 20, everything but a dated knowledge cut-off, counting Thinking Machines' own model card page.)
- Risk, Inkling-Small +15: Arete-27B 55 (File safety 25, safetensors only and no remote code.); Inkling-Small 70 (File safety 25, safetensors only and no repository code to run.)
- Reach, Inkling-Small +5: Arete-27B 50 (Memory 10, the only build from Nous Research is the 54.7 GB BF16 release, which needs about 66 GB and fits the reference machine.); Inkling-Small 55 (Memory 5 of 30, the smallest 4-bit build is Thinking Machines' NVFP4 at 170.8 GB, about 205 GB with a fifth added, so it needs 256 GB.)