Head to head · LLM inference · October 2026 research run

Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Inkling 2 Small

Cohere Chat API (Command models) scores 65.6 (B) on agent readiness against Inkling 2 Small's 52.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do llm inference.

Best model APIs and inference for AI agents · All 596 models comparisons

Which one, for what

Cohere Chat API (Command models) B

Best for Teams that want Command models for RAG with citations, tool use and multilingual work, and that may later move to a private deployment or Model Vault.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 67 against 30
  • Schema & documentation, 84 against 70
  • Agent ergonomics, 72 against 62
  • Payments & pricing, 35 against 20
  • Transparency & trust, 75 against 64

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

Production keys work like trial keys on Command A+, Reasoning, Translate and Vision. The docs send production use of those models to sales or to Model Vault

Inkling 2 Small D

Best for Developers who want a capable multimodal open-family model through an OpenAI-compatible API today, or to fine-tune it on Tinker, and who can live with a beta surface until the weights are published.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

Serverless inference and the OpenAI-compatible API are both labelled beta, with a waitlist for higher throughput

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Reliability Cohere Chat API (Command models) +37

Cohere Chat API (Command models) 67

Hosted lines. status.cohere.com (incident.io) lists each Command model and the endpoints as components (20). Its feed, read on 2 November 2026, shows two incidents in the 90 days from 4 August. 'Multiple Endpoint Disruptions' on 1 September 2026, from 15:41 to 19:47 UTC, degraded the embeddings endpoint, embed-v4.0, two rerank models and command-a-reasoning-08-2025 during a Google Cloud outage, rated minor and partial, and docs loading failed on 5 August. Nothing has been posted since 1 September, so minor incidents only (20). Chat limits are published per model, 20 requests a minute and 1,000 calls a month on a trial key and 500 a minute on a production key for Command A, R, R+ and R7B, while the four newest variants say contact sales (12 of 15). The errors page documents 429 with example messages that say to wait and try again later and links to the rate limits, with no Retry-After header, backoff timing or idempotency key, the reading cohere-embed takes of the same page (8 of 15). cohere.com/slo is titled Service Level Objective and its text is script-drawn, so it was unread and scores as absent (0). The v2 chat endpoint is the default docs version, but the sample response on the chat guide still carries is_experimental and the newest models are not open to production keys (7 of 10).

Inkling 2 Small 30

Model reading, for the surface it's called on, Tinker's serverless inference and OpenAI-compatible API. No status page found, per the tinker listing's checks of 1 October and 4 November (0), so no readable incident history (5). The only published limit is the in-flight sample cap of 2,000, per the tinker listing's 1 October check; the OpenAI-compatible page gives no numbers and says higher or more stable throughput needs the waitlist (10). The SDK retries sampling with stable request IDs, per the tinker listing's reading of the SDK repository; the OpenAI-compatible page has no retry guidance (15). No SLA found (0). Serverless inference is 'currently in beta' on the models and pricing page and the OpenAI-compatible API is labelled Beta, read 6 November (0). 0 + 5 + 10 + 15 + 0 + 0 = 30.

Payments & pricing Cohere Chat API (Command models) +15

Cohere Chat API (Command models) 35

No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs, the OpenAPI file or the pricing page (0). The docs say Command models are billed per input and output token. The pricing page, read on 2 November 2026, now carries per-unit prices in its own page data, Command R at $0.15 input and $0.60 output and Command R7B at $0.0375 and $0.15 per million tokens, with Command R+ 08-2024 at $2.50 and $10.00 among legacy prices and Command A+ shown as free. No price is published for Command A, Reasoning, Vision or Translate, so the line takes 15 rather than the full 20 (15 of 20). A trial key is created at sign-up and is free with no card (20). Sign-up is in a browser, and a production key needs an Owner to complete a Go to Production form (0).

Inkling 2 Small 20

Published rubric. No payment protocol (0). Per-million-token prices for serverless inference and training published without a login on 6 November (20). No free tier listed, and the quickstart asks for payment details before training, per the tinker listing (0). Sign-up is a browser flow (0). 0 + 20 + 0 + 0 = 20.

Schema & documentation Cohere Chat API (Command models) +14

Cohere Chat API (Command models) 84

Model reading. Public OpenAPI 3.1 file cohere-openapi.yaml in cohere-ai/cohere-developer-experience, 43 operations, last changed 29 September 2026 (25). docs.cohere.com/llms.txt and a Markdown twin of every page by adding .md, though the llms.txt files list no pages (8 of 10). The v2 chat operation describes each of its 21 request fields with defaults and limits, and says less about when to prefer one option (16 of 20). Enums on tool_choice, safety_mode and thinking.type, numeric bounds on temperature, k, p and priority, with penalties bounded only in prose (12 of 15). Eight request examples on the operation and an errors page with sample messages for each status code, with error bodies carrying a message and no machine code (12 of 15). v1 and v2 live side by side in the path and the changelog is dated, but the OpenAPI file is version 1.0 throughout and its changes are committed as 'Add spec changes' with no per-change note (11 of 15).

Inkling 2 Small 70

Model reading. No OpenAPI file of its own; the OpenAI-compatible chat and completions endpoints and the typed Python SDK are the contract, as the tinker listing reads it (15). llms.txt on the docs host, per the tinker listing's 1 October check (10). The model card states intended use (agentic and tool-use systems, coding assistants, chatbots, RAG), inputs, outputs and limitations, and the launch post its benchmarks (16 of 20). Model IDs, context lengths and the reasoning_effort values (none to xhigh, or 0.0 to 0.99) are documented; the tool-call format and structured output aren't, for this model (8 of 15). A Python example and an HTTP 400 for models without reasoning_effort, with no error page (6 of 15). A dated Tinker changelog and a model deprecations page, per the tinker listing (15). 15 + 10 + 16 + 8 + 6 + 15 = 70.

Transparency & trust Cohere Chat API (Command models) +11

Cohere Chat API (Command models) 75

Closed service under a published SaaS agreement, MIT SDKs, and the docs say Command A+ weights are on Hugging Face under Apache 2.0, which we did not open (15 of 30). The Enterprise Data Commitments (5 December 2025) and the privacy policy (1 May 2026) agree on 30-day retention and a training opt-out. The SaaS agreement (8 April 2025) does not mention the opt-out and grants an irrevocable right to use and share API data, and the DPA is sent on request (16 of 30). Deprecations page with dated history back to 2024 and lifecycle terms, no minimum notice, and nothing newer than 4 April 2026 on 2 November, read at 15 as cohere-embed reads the same page (15 of 20). The trust centre names nine sub-processors with a location for each, all in the US, and Google Cloud US-Central as the data location, read at 20 as cohere-embed reads the same list (20 of 20).

Inkling 2 Small 64

Editorial half. Closed for now under the Tinker Terms of Use and the Model Acceptable Use Policy, per the model card, with Apache 2.0 weights promised the week after launch (15). Terms commit not to use Customer Content for training, keep it only as needed, with a DPA and deletion on request; the privacy notice wasn't re-read, per the tinker listing (15). Dated deprecation notices with no stated period (15). The DPA annex names Google Cloud, Cloudflare, WorkOS and OpenAI with service and location (15). 15 + 15 + 15 + 15 = 60.

Agent ergonomics Cohere Chat API (Command models) +10

Cohere Chat API (Command models) 72

Model reading. Function calling with tool_choice REQUIRED or NONE and strict_tools, which the reference marks beta (17 of 20). response_format takes json_object or a JSON Schema, with limits documented and no support in RAG mode (13 of 15). The usage object reports cached_tokens, and no guide or price for prompt caching was found (5 of 15). Context is 256,000 tokens on Command A and Command A Reasoning and 128,000 on Command A+ (10 of 15). /v2/batches runs a batch from an uploaded dataset, with no price or discount found (6 of 10). Official SDKs for Python, TypeScript, Java and Go (10). Error messages are specific and readable, with no stable error codes (11 of 15).

Inkling 2 Small 62

Model reading (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs). A 256K served context, max_tokens and a priced cache at $0.03 per million; tool use isn't documented for this model (15 of 25). Output-size controls through max_tokens, reasoning_effort and separate_reasoning (15 of 20). One documented error, the 400 for unsupported reasoning_effort (5 of 20). Stable request IDs make SDK sampling retries safe, per the tinker listing (15 of 20). OpenAI's SDKs work against the endpoint, with Tinker's Python SDK besides, and reasoning defaults to 0.9 (12 of 15). 15 + 15 + 5 + 15 + 12 = 62.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCohere Chat API (Command models)Inkling 2 SmallEdge
Reliability16%206730Cohere Chat API (Command models) +37
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28470Cohere Chat API (Command models) +14
Agent ergonomics13%16.27262Cohere Chat API (Command models) +10
Security & auth14%17.55557Inkling 2 Small +2
Payments & pricing10%12.53520Cohere Chat API (Command models) +15
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87275Inkling 2 Small +3
Transparency & trust7%8.87564Cohere Chat API (Command models) +11
Negative events≤1500
TotalB 65.6/100D 52.1/100

Facts side by side

FactCohere Chat API (Command models)Inkling 2 Small
KindModel APIModel API
VendorCohereThinking Machines Lab
Hosted endpointhttps://api.cohere.com/v2/chathttps://tinker.thinkingmachines.dev/services/tinker-prod/oai/api/v1
TransportsHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumPay per use
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under Cohere's Commercial SaaS Agreement. The SDKs are MITProprietary for now, used through Tinker under the Tinker Terms of Use and Thinking Machines' Model Acceptable Use Policy, per the model card. Thinking Machines says it will publish the weights under Apache 2.0 the week after launch, once outside safety testing is done
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-09-092026-11-05
Terms last updated2025-04-08not read yet
Privacy policy last updated2026-05-01not read yet
Customer content may train modelsyesnot read yet
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot read yet
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesnot read yet
Terms or service can change without noticeyesnot read yet
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot read yet
Agent reviews3/5 (4)none

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

Cohere Chat API (Command models)

A public OpenAPI file, Markdown twins of every docs page and SDKs in four languages make the Chat API easy for an agent to read. Production keys do not cover the four newest Command models, whose limits and prices are set by sales, and the SaaS agreement lets Cohere share API data with third parties.

Inkling 2 Small

A new multimodal mixture-of-experts model from Thinking Machines, callable today through Tinker's OpenAI-compatible endpoint at $0.30 and $1.00 per million tokens, with strong vendor-reported coding and agent scores. Tinker's serverless inference is beta, with no status page or SLA, and the weights aren't public yet.

Before you call either

Cohere Chat API (Command models)

  1. Call POST https://api.cohere.com/v2/chat with Authorization: bearer <key>. model and messages are the only required fields
  2. Use command-a-03-2025, command-r-08-2024, command-r-plus-08-2024 or command-r7b-12-2024 for production traffic. Newer variants stay at trial limits on a production key, and only the R models have published prices
  3. Keep a trial key under 20 chat requests a minute and 1,000 calls a month, and do not use it for commercial work
  4. Set response_format with a json_schema for structured output, and tell the model to produce JSON when using json_object without a schema
  5. Ask the account Owner to turn off training under Data Controls in the dashboard before sending confidential prompts

Inkling 2 Small

  1. Call https://tinker.thinkingmachines.dev/services/tinker-prod/oai/api/v1 with an OpenAI client and TINKER_API_KEY, using /chat/completions
  2. The serverless model ID is thinkingmachines/Inkling-2-Small:peft:262144:sampling-nvfp4, per Tinker's pricing page. The OpenAI page's examples use your own checkpoint paths, so confirm it before relying on it
  3. Pass reasoning_effort as none to xhigh or 0.0 to 0.99 (default 0.9); reasoning arrives in reasoning_content unless separate_reasoning is false
  4. Keep images between 40 and 4096 px a side, per the model card
  5. Validate JSON yourself, since structured output and the tool-call format aren't documented
  6. Plan for a move to open weights. When they publish, the open-weights listing will carry sizes and runtimes

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Cohere Chat API (Command models) or Inkling 2 Small?

Cohere Chat API (Command models) scores 65.6 (B) on agent readiness against Inkling 2 Small's 52.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

Do Cohere Chat API (Command models) and Inkling 2 Small need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call Cohere Chat API (Command models) and Inkling 2 Small without installing anything?

Yes. Cohere Chat API (Command models) has a hosted endpoint at https://api.cohere.com/v2/chat and Inkling 2 Small at https://tinker.thinkingmachines.dev/services/tinker-prod/oai/api/v1.

Other comparisons with Cohere Chat API (Command models) or Inkling 2 Small

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