Head to head · LLM inference · October 2026 research run
Inkling 2 Small vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
Tencent Cloud TokenHub scores 59.5 (C) on agent readiness against Inkling 2 Small's 52.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Inkling 2 Small leads on transparency & trust. Both do llm inference.
Best model APIs and inference for AI agents · All 596 models comparisons
Which one, for what
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.
Ahead on
- Transparency & trust, 64 against 54
Also in its favour
- No incidents deducted, where Tencent Cloud TokenHub loses 3 points for them
Watch for
Serverless inference and the OpenAI-compatible API are both labelled beta, with a waitlist for higher throughput
Best for Teams in or near Tencent Cloud that want one key and bill for Tencent's Hy models and Chinese open-weight models (DeepSeek, Kimi, GLM, MiniMax, Qwen, MiMo) with per-key limits and CNY billing.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 46 against 30
- Agent ergonomics, 83 against 62
- Security & auth, 71 against 57
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 20
Watch for
Sign-up needs a Tencent Cloud account with real-name verification. The international site answered with a bot check, so access from outside China was not established
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.
Agent ergonomics Tencent Cloud TokenHub +21
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.
Tencent Cloud TokenHub 83
Router, read on the model lines. Function calling is marked on most chat models in the model list, with behaviour depending on the model routed (14 of 20). Structured output is marked per model and missing on the MiniMax and Qwen models, and an unsupported response_format returns code 400006 (12 of 15). Cache-hit prices are published per model, Kimi K3.1 Pro lists five-minute and one-hour cache writes, and a guide covers prompt_cache_key and the X-Session-ID header for instance affinity (14 of 15). Most listed chat models have contexts of one million tokens, a judgement call since a router has no default model (15). Batch at half price covers only Hy3 and Hy4 preview, reads and writes JSONL in the customer's own COS bucket and is documented for the Guangzhou endpoint (5 of 10). No TokenHub inference SDK. The OpenAI and Anthropic SDKs work with a changed base URL, and Tencent Cloud SDK 3.0 and the thcli CLI cover the control plane (8 of 10). Errors return a code, English and Chinese messages, the source, the upstream code and status and a request ID, and stream errors arrive as SSE error frames (15 of 15).
Reliability Tencent Cloud TokenHub +16
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.
Tencent Cloud TokenHub 46
Hosted reading. No public status page was found. status.cloud.tencent.com did not answer and the Tencent Cloud health dashboard documentation answered with a bot check (0). With no page there is no incident record to read (5 of 30). The announcements carry one incident, DeepSeek's directly supplied models unavailable from 9:06 to 13:04 Beijing time on 15 October 2026 after a fault at DeepSeek, compensated with vouchers. Rate limits are per model, shown in the console and returned by DescribeModelQuota. The public docs give numbers only for batch jobs (20 created a minute, 10 active), image models (5 concurrent) and DeepSeek V4 Flash and Pro (2,500 and 500 concurrent), with the rules for self-serve increases (8 of 15). Six 429 codes separate RPM, TPM, TPD, concurrency and upstream capacity, 429s may carry Retry-After and the docs advise exponential backoff. No idempotency guidance, though inference calls are not writes (13 of 15). The TokenHub SLA promises 99.5% monthly availability with vouchers of 10, 25 or 50 per cent of the month's fee. It excludes free use and third-party deployed models such as DeepSeek's directly supplied ones (10). Generally available since 7 April 2026, with some models marked preview (10).
Payments & pricing Tencent Cloud TokenHub +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.
Tencent Cloud TokenHub 35
No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-token prices for every model are public in CNY for Guangzhou and Singapore, with DeepSeek's peak and off-peak rates (20). Each account gets 1M free tokens per language model, valid for a year, in a campaign running to 31 December 2026. No card is mentioned, but the account needs real-name verification, so this line takes 15 of 20. A person signs up and completes real-name verification in a browser. Keys can then be created in code or by thcli auth login, but only from that account (0).
Security & auth Tencent Cloud TokenHub +14
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.
Tencent Cloud TokenHub 71
Router, read on the model lines. Bearer keys can be limited to chosen models and inference services, up to 200 source IP ranges and daily, monthly or total token quotas, can be disabled or deleted, and can be created in code through CreateApiKey with signed Tencent Cloud credentials. Keys are long-lived with no expiry setting or built-in rotation (26 of 30). Clause 2.17 of the terms says inputs are not used to train Tencent Cloud's own models, and the FAQ says data is not used for training. Inputs to third-party deployed models (DeepSeek's directly supplied ones) go to DeepSeek under its terms (14 of 20). Clause 2.14 keeps data only as long as the service needs, with no periods stated. When a customer asks for generated content without AI labels, Tencent Cloud keeps logs of who received it for at least six months. No zero-retention option was found (7 of 15). Per-call audit logs (request ID, key, client IP, status, tokens, latency) and optional full call logs go to the customer's CLS, billed separately, with usage by key and a monitoring dashboard (14 of 15). No security.txt on cloud.tencent.com, www.tencent.com or tokenhub.tencentmaas.com (404). Tencent's bug bounty through TSRC lists Tencent Cloud in scope. No certification for TokenHub was checked (10 of 20).
Transparency & trust Inkling 2 Small +10
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.
Tencent Cloud TokenHub 54
Closed service under the TokenHub Terms of Service (effective 14 September 2026), the SLA (23 April 2026), a special note on third-party deployed models and the Tencent Cloud Service Agreement, naming Tencent Cloud Computing (Beijing) Co., Ltd. The CLI is Apache-2.0 (18 of 30). The terms and the FAQ agree that inputs are processed on the customer's instructions and not used for training, and clause 2.14 limits retention to what the service needs without periods. The TokenHub privacy policy on privacy.qq.com renders only with JavaScript and was not read (15 of 30). Dated retirement notices, shutdown dates in the model list, a pre-offline status in /v1/models and a DiscontinuedAt field in the control API. Clause 6.3 refunds paid, unused tokens when a third-party model is removed. No minimum notice period is written (13 of 20). Clause 2.13 places processing generally in mainland China for the China site and in Singapore for the international site, and the third-party model list names DeepSeek's Hangzhou company with a link to its terms. No subprocessor list was found (13 of 20).
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Inkling 2 Small | Tencent Cloud TokenHub | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 30 | 46 | Tencent Cloud TokenHub +16 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 70 | 73 | Tencent Cloud TokenHub +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 62 | 83 | Tencent Cloud TokenHub +21 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 57 | 71 | Tencent Cloud TokenHub +14 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 20 | 35 | Tencent Cloud TokenHub +15 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 75 | 73 | Inkling 2 Small +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 64 | 54 | Inkling 2 Small +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| Total | D 52.1/100 | C 59.5/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Inkling 2 Small | Tencent Cloud TokenHub |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Model API | Model router |
| Vendor | Thinking Machines Lab | Tencent Cloud |
| Hosted endpoint | https://tinker.thinkingmachines.dev/services/tinker-prod/oai/api/v1 | https://tokenhub.tencentmaas.com/v1 |
| Transports | HTTP | |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| 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 TokenHub Terms of Service, the TokenHub SLA and the Tencent Cloud Service Agreement, with a special note for third-party deployed models. The tencent-tokenhub-cli package is Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-11-05 | 2026-10-24 |
| Terms last updated | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | none | 204 npm/wk |
Verdicts
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.
Tencent Cloud TokenHub
Keys can be limited to chosen models, source IPs and token quotas, errors name their source and code, and a 99.5% SLA covers paid use of models Tencent runs. Sign-up needs a Tencent Cloud account with real-name verification, prices are in CNY, no public status page was found, and 18 model retirement notices ran from April to October 2026.
Before you call either
Inkling 2 Small
- Call https://tinker.thinkingmachines.dev/services/tinker-prod/oai/api/v1 with an OpenAI client and TINKER_API_KEY, using /chat/completions
- 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
- 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
- Keep images between 40 and 4096 px a side, per the model card
- Validate JSON yourself, since structured output and the tool-call format aren't documented
- Plan for a move to open weights. When they publish, the open-weights listing will carry sizes and runtimes
Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- Use
https://tokenhub.tencentmaas.com/v1with keys made for Guangzhou andhttps://tokenhub-intl.tencentmaas.com/v1with keys made for Singapore. Keys do not work across the two - Send the key as
Authorization: Beareron the OpenAI paths and asx-api-keyon/v1/messages - Parse
error.codeas a string or a number, since 429 codes can come back as integers, and wait forRetry-Afterbefore retrying - Take model ids from
GET /v1/modelsand watch forpre-offline. The quickstart'sdeepseek-v3example is not in the current model list - Expect DeepSeek prices to double on weekdays from 9am to noon and 2pm to 6pm Beijing time, when the peak rate applies
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Inkling 2 Small or Tencent Cloud TokenHub?
Tencent Cloud TokenHub scores 59.5 (C) on agent readiness against Inkling 2 Small's 52.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Inkling 2 Small leads on transparency & trust.
Do Inkling 2 Small and Tencent Cloud TokenHub need an API key?
Both need an API key.
Can an agent call Inkling 2 Small and Tencent Cloud TokenHub without installing anything?
Yes. Inkling 2 Small has a hosted endpoint at https://tinker.thinkingmachines.dev/services/tinker-prod/oai/api/v1 and Tencent Cloud TokenHub at https://tokenhub.tencentmaas.com/v1.
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- Jais 3 vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
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- MiniMax API vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- Mistral AI API vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- Muse Spark Open vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- Novita AI vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- OpenAI API vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- OpenRouter vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- Beam 1.0 vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- SambaCloud vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- SiliconFlow vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- Simplismart vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- StepFun API vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- SWE-2 Flash vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- Tencent Cloud TokenHub vs Together AI Inference
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- Prism Inference vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- Antseed vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- Router.com (Ramp Router) vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- RouterPlus vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-tencent-tokenhub.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/inkling-2-small.json·/api/v1/tools/tencent-tokenhub.json - From a terminal
anchor compare inkling-2-small tencent-tokenhub(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "inkling-2-small", "b": "tencent-tokenhub"}at/mcp, no key