# DeepSeek API vs Inkling 2 Small (slim)

> Inkling 2 Small scores 52.1 (D) to DeepSeek's 46.7 (D) for llm inference. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-inkling-2-small.md (~6,100 tokens) · this version ~2,980 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-inkling-2-small.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-inkling-2-small
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-06
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Inkling 2 Small scores 52.1 (D) on agent readiness against DeepSeek API's 46.7 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. DeepSeek API leads on reliability and agent ergonomics. Both do llm inference.

- DeepSeek API: D 46.7, rank #1047 of 1354 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deepseek-api.min.md
- Inkling 2 Small: D 52.1, rank #899 of 1354 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/inkling-2-small.min.md
- DeepSeek API, good for Low-cost long-context work on public data, and off-peak batch-style jobs run through the normal API. Ahead on Reliability, 60 against 30; Agent ergonomics, 70 against 62.
- Inkling 2 Small, good 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. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 70 against 49; Security & auth, 57 against 35; Maintenance & community, 75 against 46. Also No incidents deducted, where DeepSeek API loses 3 points for them.

| Category | DeepSeek API | Inkling 2 Small |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 60 | 30 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 49 | 70 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 70 | 62 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 35 | 57 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 20 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 46 | 75 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 65 | 64 |

| Fact (where they differ) | DeepSeek API | Inkling 2 Small |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | DeepSeek | Thinking Machines Lab |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.deepseek.com` | `https://tinker.thinkingmachines.dev/services/tinker-prod/oai/api/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP |  |
| Licence | none | Proprietary 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 |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-17 | 2026-11-05 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (2) | none |

Why the edge:
- Reliability, DeepSeek API +30: DeepSeek API 60 (Per the 17 October check, not re-read on 5 November (DeepSeek's terms bar automated access, so nothing on DeepSeek's hosts was requested). Status page at status.deepseek.com, run on Flashduty, with per-API components and a readable feed (20). The recorded feed lists 36 incidents from 22 July to 15 October. Four touch only web search, 27 are degraded performance, and five are partial unavailability, one of them (12 October) the web chat only. Of the four that hit the API, 28 July (7 minutes) has left the 90-day window and 2 September lasted 31 minutes. 14 September (18:30 to 21:30 UTC) left the V4.1 Flash API and chat partly unavailable for three hours, and 15 October (00:11 to 05:04 UTC) left the V4 Pro and V4.1 Flash APIs and chat partly unavailable for 4 hours 52 minutes. Two majors in 90 days sit between one (10) and several (0), so 5. 16 October to 5 November is unread and earns nothing beyond the recorded award (5). Concurrency caps published per account, 2,500 on Flash and 500 on V4 Pro, and requests that haven't started inference after 10 minutes are closed (15). The rate-limit and error pages document 429, and advise a brief wait and retry on 500 and 503, with no `Retry-After` header, backoff schedule or statement that a retried call is safe (10 of 15). No SLA found (0). V4 Pro and V4.1 Flash are GA (10). 20 + 5 + 15 + 10 + 0 + 10 = 60.); 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.)
- Maintenance & community, Inkling 2 Small +29: DeepSeek API 46 (Per the 17 October check, not re-read on 5 November (DeepSeek's terms bar automated access, so nothing on DeepSeek's hosts was requested). Model reading. V4.1 Flash was upgraded to DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 on 17 October under the same `deepseek-flash` name and price, posted on the updates page the same day, 19 days before this check (30). Later updates entries are unread. No stated notice policy. `deepseek-chat` and `deepseek-reasoner` got three months, announced on 24 April for 24 July. One dated notice with no stated period partly meets the line, and the earlier partial award is held (4 of 12). Model churn covers the V4 Flash retirement on 10 September and the V4 Pro shutdown set for 14 September, announced on 13 August and withdrawn on 10 September. The 24 July shutdown has left the 90-day window. A retirement and a withdrawn shutdown inside it keep churn at the bottom of its range (0 of 8). Dated updates page, and the docs list api-service@deepseek.com and a Discord server for support. We didn't test whether either answers (12 of 15). No official SDKs or SDK repository (0 of 15, 0 of 10). 30 + 4 + 0 + 12 + 0 + 0 = 46.); Inkling 2 Small 75 (Model reading. Released 5 November 2026 (30). Churn and notice in place of release counts: Inkling, Inkling-Small (30 July) and Inkling 2 Small in about four months, and a deprecations page with dated retirements and a promise to 'aim to give advance notice' by email, with no stated period, per the tinker listing (10 of 20). A public changelog and a support address and Discord, per the tinker listing (10 of 15). Current official SDKs, Tinker's Python SDK and the OpenAI-compatible endpoint (15). SDK and cookbook CI, per the tinker listing (10). 30 + 10 + 10 + 15 + 10 = 75.)
- Security & auth, Inkling 2 Small +22: DeepSeek API 35 (Per the 17 October check, not re-read on 5 November (DeepSeek's terms bar automated access, so nothing on DeepSeek's hosts was requested). Model reading. One Bearer key per balance, no scoping found (20 of 30). The privacy policy, last updated 10 February 2026, says personal data is used to train models, with an opt-out by email to privacy@deepseek.com (0 of 20). Data kept for as long as needed to provide the services, with no period stated and no zero-retention route (5 of 15). Per-call logs or audit logs not found (5 of 15). Security programme 5 of 20 (was 0). The www.deepseek.com footer carries a Report Security Issue address, security@deepseek.com, per the 21 October reading used for DeepSeek's open-weight listings and its Search and Fetch API listing. No security.txt (404 on 17 October), disclosure policy, certification or bug bounty found. 20 + 0 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 35.); Inkling 2 Small 57 (Platform readings are the tinker listing's. Revocable API keys from the console, with no per-key scopes found (20). Org, team and project permissions with no read-only role (5). The model returns its own completions, no third-party content (10). get_audit_log() for admins (15). security.txt with a reporting address and no stated acknowledgement time (7). For the model reading, Tinker's terms commit not to use Customer Content for training, recorded under transparency. 20 + 5 + 10 + 15 + 7 = 57.)
- Schema & documentation, Inkling 2 Small +21: DeepSeek API 49 (Per the 17 October check, not re-read on 5 November (DeepSeek's terms bar automated access, so nothing on DeepSeek's hosts was requested). No OpenAPI document and no llms.txt found (0 and 0). API reference covers both the OpenAI and Anthropic formats. The chat completion reference, read on 2 October, describes each parameter with its range and default, such as `max_tokens` from 1 to 393,216 with 8K by default without thinking, but says little on when not to use one (14 of 20). Strict tool calls are documented, in beta at the `/beta` base URL, with a JSON Schema subset (object, string, number, integer, boolean, array, enum, anyOf, `$ref`) where every property must be required. JSON output mode carries no schema guarantee (10 of 15). The error codes page lists seven codes, each with a cause and a fix, but no example bodies (10 of 15). Dated updates page that names model changes (15). 0 + 0 + 14 + 10 + 10 + 15 = 49.); 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.)
- Agent ergonomics, DeepSeek API +8: DeepSeek API 70 (Per the 17 October check, not re-read on 5 November (DeepSeek's terms bar automated access, so nothing on DeepSeek's hosts was requested). Model reading of the checklist (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). Tool calls through both request formats, and the API reference documents `tool_choice` as none, auto, required or a named function (20 of 20). Strict schema-enforced tool calls in beta, JSON output without a schema guarantee (10 of 15). Disk cache on by default with cheaper hits, per the listing (15). 1M-token context and up to 384K output (15). No batch API documented (0). No official SDKs, you use the OpenAI or Anthropic client (0). Seven error codes with a fix for each, 402 for an empty balance (10 of 15). 20 + 10 + 15 + 15 + 0 + 0 + 10 = 70.); 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.)