# Glimpse vs Inkling 2 Small (slim)

> Inkling 2 Small scores 52.1 (D) to Glimpse's 35.1 (F) for llm inference. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-inkling-2-small.md (~6,300 tokens) · this version ~3,230 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-inkling-2-small.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-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 Glimpse's 35.1 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Glimpse leads on payments & pricing. Both do llm inference.

- Glimpse: F 35.1, rank #1247 of 1354 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/elorian-glimpse.min.md
- Inkling 2 Small: D 52.1, rank #899 of 1354 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/inkling-2-small.min.md
- Glimpse, good for Visual question answering, video captioning and counting over images and video at a low per-token price, where a research preview reached through OpenRouter or Together is acceptable. Ahead on Payments & pricing, 25 against 20.
- 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 Reliability, 30 against 23; Schema & documentation, 70 against 40; Agent ergonomics, 62 against 20; Maintenance & community, 75 against 51; Transparency & trust, 64 against 38.

| Category | Glimpse | Inkling 2 Small |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 23 | 30 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 40 | 70 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 20 | 62 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 56 | 57 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 25 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 51 | 75 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 38 | 64 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Glimpse | Inkling 2 Small |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Elorian | Thinking Machines Lab |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://openrouter.ai/api/v1` | `https://tinker.thinkingmachines.dev/services/tinker-prod/oai/api/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP |  |
| Licence | Closed model and service under the Elorian AI, Inc. terms of service. Weights not released. | 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 | 2026-10-16 | 2026-11-05 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-12 | not read yet |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | 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 | 2.5/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Agent ergonomics, Inkling 2 Small +42: Glimpse 20 (Model reading of the checklist (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). On 17 October the tool, `tool_choice`, `response_format`, `structured_outputs`, cached-price, context, output-limit and batch readings for this model all came from OpenRouter's endpoints API, which this run doesn't use, so they are struck. No readable first-hand page states them today. Elorian's docs sit on a host that refuses our crawler, and Together's model page says only text, image and video in and text out on a dedicated deployment. Tool use (0 of 20), structured output (0 of 15), prompt caching (0 of 15), context length (0 of 15), batch (0 of 10). OpenRouter's SDKs in TypeScript, Python and Go, and any OpenAI client works (10 of 10, per the 17 October check, not re-read on 4 November 2026). OpenRouter's documented error codes with `limit_source` and remedy hints, nothing specific to video or image limits (10 of 15, per the 17 October check, not re-read on 4 November 2026). 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 10 + 10 = 20.); 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.)
- Schema & documentation, Inkling 2 Small +30: Glimpse 40 (Model reading. Elorian publishes no API reference, model card or llms.txt in public. Its docs sit at platform.elorian.ai/docs, a host whose robots.txt answers access denied. The 17 October contract reading rested on OpenRouter's OpenAPI-documented chat endpoint, with no recorded visible download link on a host now paused, and on the parameter list from OpenRouter's endpoints API, both struck (0 of 25). OpenRouter's llms.txt and Markdown docs, including video input (10, per the 17 October check, not re-read on 4 November 2026). The launch post and Together's model page name the jobs (visual search, video captioning, dense counting, robotics planning) and the post states limits (token cost, no action outputs yet), but nothing says when not to use it or how video is sampled (6 of 20). Typed parameters for OpenRouter's chat endpoint in its API reference, with no reasoning effort levels documented for this model (10 of 15, per the 17 October check, not re-read on 4 November 2026; the 17 October `tool_choice` reading came from the struck endpoints API). OpenRouter's examples and error reference, with no Glimpse-specific examples or limits on video length or image count (7 of 15). OpenRouter's dated changelog, with no changelog from Elorian (7 of 15, held as partly met; the dated canonical slug came from the struck endpoints API). 0 + 10 + 6 + 10 + 7 + 7 = 40.); 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, Inkling 2 Small +26: Glimpse 38 (Closed model with weights not released and the open-weight base model unnamed. Elorian's terms sit on platform.elorian.ai, whose robots.txt answers access denied, so they were not read; published terms on a refusing host keep the closed-service value, held at 13 of 30. The privacy policy says Elorian trains on submitted content from free use and gives no retention periods, and the acceptable use policy, updated 19 October 2026, is still titled Privacy Policy and still carries a drafting comment from a terms outline in its markup (10 of 30, held as partly met; the 17 October comparison with the terms rested on the struck script reading). No deprecation policy or dated notices (0 of 20). Services hosted in the United States and subprocessors named by category only, and OpenRouter shows Together as the provider with its data policy (8 of 20). 13 + 10 + 0 + 8 = 31.); 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.)
- Maintenance & community, Inkling 2 Small +24: Glimpse 51 (Model reading. Announced on 16 October 2026, 19 days before 4 November, and still labelled a research preview on Together's model page that day (30). One release, no history of versions or retirements and no deprecation notice period (3 of 20). Elorian's support page says there is no support queue, and channels are email and a Discord server, not tested (6 of 25, per the 17 October check, not re-read on 4 November 2026; the terms' no-support clause came from the struck script reading). No official SDK from Elorian. OpenRouter's SDKs are current (8 of 15). No package or CI of Elorian's to read. OpenRouter's SDK repositories run CI (4 of 10). 30 + 3 + 6 + 8 + 4 = 51.); 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.)
- Reliability, Inkling 2 Small +7: Glimpse 23 (Hosted lines, read on the OpenRouter route. OpenRouter's status host refuses our crawler in robots.txt, so the 17 October reading of it is struck, and Elorian has no status page found (0 of 20). No 90-day incident record could be read. The 17 October uptime figures came from OpenRouter's endpoints API, a JSON data API this run doesn't use, and are struck (5). OpenRouter's limits page documents credit, budget and rate limits and a key endpoint that reports what's left, but sets no request cap on paid models, and no limit for Glimpse was found (8 of 15, per the 17 October check, not re-read on 4 November 2026, openrouter.ai paused on its terms). The errors page documents Retry-After on 429 and 503 and on 402 in-flight budget errors, and says the official SDKs honour it, with no safe-retry guidance or idempotency keys recorded (10, Retry-After alone, the value this run gives backoff or Retry-After guidance by itself; per the 17 October check, not re-read on 4 November 2026). No SLA from Elorian or for this endpoint (0). Elorian and Together label Glimpse a research preview (0). 0 + 5 + 8 + 10 + 0 + 0 = 23.); 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, Glimpse +5: Glimpse 25 (No machine payment protocol on OpenRouter or from Elorian (0). Per-token prices of $0.60 input and $3.00 output per million tokens published without a login in Elorian's launch post (20). Together lists Glimpse on dedicated endpoints with pricing on request. Elorian's post says it can be tried free on Elorian's platform, which needs a sign-in, and whether a card is needed was not established (5 of 20). A person signs up in a browser on every route (0). 0 + 20 + 5 + 0 = 25. Elorian's and OpenRouter's pages per the 17 October check, not re-read on 4 November 2026.); 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.)