# Inkling 2 Small vs Novita AI (slim)

> Novita AI scores 53.9 (D) to Inkling 2 Small's 52.1 (D) for llm inference. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-novita-ai.md (~6,400 tokens) · this version ~3,280 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-novita-ai.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-novita-ai
- 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)

Novita AI scores 53.9 (D) on agent readiness against Inkling 2 Small's 52.1 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Inkling 2 Small leads on schema & documentation, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do llm inference.

- Inkling 2 Small: D 52.1, rank #899 of 1354 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/inkling-2-small.min.md
- Novita AI: D 53.9, rank #838 of 1354 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/novita-ai.min.md
- 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 62; Maintenance & community, 75 against 66; Transparency & trust, 64 against 57.
- Novita AI, good for Agents that want many open-weight models at per-token prices behind one OpenAI-style key, with keys that can be limited by model, IP and expiry. Ahead on Agent ergonomics, 72 against 62; Security & auth, 65 against 57; Payments & pricing, 35 against 20.

| Category | Inkling 2 Small | Novita AI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 30 | 28 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 70 | 62 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 62 | 72 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 57 | 65 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 20 | 35 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 75 | 66 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 64 | 57 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Inkling 2 Small | Novita AI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Thinking Machines Lab | Novita AI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://tinker.thinkingmachines.dev/services/tinker-prod/oai/api/v1` | `https://api.novita.ai/openai` |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Licence | 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 | Proprietary service under the Novita AI Terms of Service. The agent skill and the MCP server are MIT |
| Last release | 2026-11-05 | 2026-10-22 |
| Terms last updated | not read yet | 2026-08-05 |
| Privacy policy last updated | not read yet | 2026-05-13 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | yes |
| Popularity | none | 6 stars, 1.4k npm/wk |

Why the edge:
- Payments & pricing, Novita AI +15: 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.); Novita AI 35 (No machine payment protocol was found in the docs index, the site map, the pricing page or the skill repository (0). Per-token prices for each model on the pricing page without a login, such as `deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash` at $0.30 in and $1.20 out per 1M tokens (20). Two language models are listed as free and the FAQ describes a voucher for new users. Whether a card is needed to use either was not stated in the pages read (15 of 20). A person signs up in a browser, keys are created only in the console, and the OAuth route needs the user to sign in and approve (0). Per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November, as the terms bar automated access to the site and docs.)
- Agent ergonomics, Novita AI +10: 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.); Novita AI 72 (Model reading of the checklist (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). `tools` with a `strict` flag and a worked example. The list of models that support it is drawn by script, and `tool_choice` is absent from the chat reference (13 of 20). `response_format` takes `json_object` and `json_schema` with `strict` in the reference, while the FAQ says only `json_object` works (9 of 15). Prompt caching is automatic on supported models, cache-read prices are on the pricing page and `cached_tokens` is returned in usage (12 of 15). Context of 1M tokens on DeepSeek V4, GLM 5.3 and Kimi K3 per the pricing page. Output caps were not read (12 of 15). OpenAI-style files and batches with a 24-hour window, one model per file and an introductory 50 per cent discount (10). The OpenAI client works with a changed base URL. Both vendor SDK repositories are archived (5 of 10). Named error codes, a 429 that separates request and token limits, and a `trace_id` for support (11 of 15). Per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November, as the terms bar automated access to the site and docs.)
- Maintenance & community, Inkling 2 Small +9: 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.); Novita AI 66 (Model reading. Changelog entries per the 27 October reading of each entry page, not re-read on 4 November because Novita's terms bar automated access to the site and its linked channels. The newest entry is dated 22 October 2026 (30). Retirement notices carry a UTC time and a replacement, with notice of 1 day (22 October for `xiaomimimo/mimo-v2.5` at 00:00 UTC on 23 October) to 29 days (1 September for multimodal models on 30 September). No written notice period was found (6 of 12). Nine dated entries in the 90 days from 6 August (1, 8, 18, 20, 23 and 28 September, 15, 19 and 22 October), each read on its own page (8 of 8). A dated changelog, a Discord server and a support address per the 9 October check (12 of 15). `novitalabs/python-sdk` and `novitalabs/javascript-sdk` are archived, unchanged since 8 November 2024 and 4 March 2025, and issue replies were not examined (2 of 10). The docs rely on the OpenAI client, the SDK page still named the two archived packages on 9 October, and the skill repository is unchanged since 24 September 2026 (5 of 15). The JavaScript SDK repository has a publish workflow only and the Python one has none (3 of 10). 30 + 6 + 8 + 12 + 2 + 5 + 3 = 66.)
- Schema & documentation, Inkling 2 Small +8: 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.); Novita AI 62 (Model reading. The OpenAPI 3.1.0 document at `/.well-known/openapi.json` is a 964-byte discovery file with four paths and no schemas, and the API reference is written by hand (6 of 25). `llms.txt` on both hosts, a Markdown copy of every docs page and an `llms-full.txt` (10). Guides for function calling, structured output, prompt caching, batch and reasoning say what each is for, and the chat reference describes 136 request and response fields (14 of 20). Fields are typed with required flags and defaults. Enums and ranges are stated in prose only (10 of 15). Curl and Python examples on each guide, error tables by product, a common errors guide and a table of which statuses are billed. The FAQ says `json_schema` and `top_logprobs` are unsupported while the reference and a guide document both (10 of 15). A dated changelog with 84 entries since February 2024. The API has no version scheme beyond `/v1` (12 of 15). Per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November, as the terms bar automated access to the site and docs.)
- Security & auth, Novita AI +8: 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.); Novita AI 65 (Model reading. Bearer keys with the `sk_` prefix, shown once, up to 10 an account, with an expiry of 24 hours, 30 days, 90 days or none fixed at creation, deletable in the console, and a per-key model access policy and source IP allowlist that can be set by API. OAuth with PKCE and the scopes `api` and `balance:read` is described in `auth.md`, with no token revocation endpoint. No documented way to send a key in a URL was found (26 of 30). The terms, re-read on 4 November and still updated 5 August 2026, say content is not used to train Novita's models or improve the services by default (17 of 20). The terms state zero data retention, with exceptions for law and for what is necessary to run or support the service, and allow automated safety screening. Batch input files are kept for 15 days (11 of 15). Billing can be queried per key, and budget, monitoring and metrics pages are listed in the docs index and were not read (7 of 15). The trust centre at trust.novita.ai is drawn by script and was not read. `/.well-known/security.txt` returns 404, and no disclosure policy or bug bounty was found (4 of 20). The key, retention and trust-centre readings are per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November.)
- Transparency & trust, Inkling 2 Small +7: 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.); Novita AI 57 (Closed service. The terms set Delaware law and arbitration but name the party only as Novita AI, with no corporate form or address. The skill and the MCP server are MIT (10 of 30). The terms state zero data retention and no training by default, and the privacy policy lists retention periods (account data for the life of the account plus 7 years, technical data 2 years). The privacy policy says it does not cover content processed for customers and points to customer agreements. No DPA was found (16 of 30). Retirement notices in the changelog carry a UTC time and a replacement. The terms reserve the right to discontinue any service without notice (12 of 20). The privacy policy names categories of recipients only and transfers that include the United States. No sub-processor list was found (4 of 20). Per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November, as the terms bar automated access to the site and docs.)