Head to head · LLM inference · October 2026 research run

Inkling 2 Small vs Together AI Inference

Together AI Inference scores 67.8 (B) on agent readiness against Inkling 2 Small's 52.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Inkling 2 Small leads on maintenance & community. Both do llm inference.

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

Which one, for what

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.

Ahead on

  • Maintenance & community, 75 against 65

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where Together AI Inference loses 3 points for them

Watch for

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

Together AI Inference B

Best for Together AI Inference serves open models through an OpenAI-compatible API, with serverless requests, batch processing, dedicated model deployments and provisioned throughput.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 75 against 30
  • Schema & documentation, 93 against 70
  • Agent ergonomics, 85 against 62
  • Security & auth, 70 against 57
  • Transparency & trust, 74 against 64

Watch for

A $15 credit purchase is required before platform access; no free trial

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 Together AI Inference +45

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.

Together AI Inference 75

Graded as listed, on the hosted API lines. Public Better Stack status page at status.together.ai with a component for each serverless model plus the website and playground (20). The page shows 90 daily ticks per component, read on 1 November 2026 for 4 August to 1 November, and no incident was posted in that time (the feed's newest items are maintenance windows in April and July 2026). Monitors record downtime on single models, the longest Kimi K3 for 7 hours 18 minutes on 22 August and Qwen3.8-2.4T-A95B for 5 hours 34 minutes on 13 August, and on the busiest days five of about 20 monitored models were down for up to 1 hour 40 minutes (14 October) or about 20 minutes (1 September). Each hit one model or a subset of the catalogue, so the record reads as minor incidents only (20). The current serverless page gives no numeric general request ceiling (0). Explicit 429 and 503 backoff guidance (15). Provisioned throughput has a published 99% eligible-request commitment (10). Serverless inference is generally available (10). 20 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 10 + 10 = 75.

Schema & documentation Together AI Inference +23

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.

Together AI Inference 93

Public OpenAPI 3.1 (25), llms.txt and Markdown docs (10), endpoint and model-capability guidance (16 of 20), typed inputs and constraints (13 of 15), examples and documented errors (14 of 15), and versioned endpoints with a dated changelog (15).

Agent ergonomics Together AI Inference +23

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.

Together AI Inference 85

Compact model API with bounded output (25). Token controls, streaming, structured outputs and batch options (20). Actionable error documentation (20). Transient retry guidance but no general inference deduplication guarantee found (5 of 20). Official Python and TypeScript SDKs and defaults (15).

Security & auth Together AI Inference +13

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.

Together AI Inference 70

Project-scoped, revocable keys with optional expiry and rotation guidance (30). Project boundaries but keys can access all project resources and lack per-key spend limits (10 of 20). No inference prompt-injection mitigation established (0). Per-key cost and usage attribution (15). Published security.txt with a future expiry and HackerOne disclosure route (15 of 20).

Maintenance & community Inkling 2 Small +10

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.

Together AI Inference 65

Graded as listed, on the tool lines. Changelog entries on 22 and 23 October 2026 (Python SDK 3.0, TypeScript SDK 1.0, MiniMax M3.1 Flash on serverless and post-training) (30). 43 dated changelog days and 16 Python SDK tags from 3 August, v2.33.1 to v3.0.0 (20). Support responsiveness not tested (0). Official Python and TypeScript SDKs, both given new majors on 22 October (15). Dependency and CI health not audited (0).

Transparency & trust Together AI Inference +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.

Together AI Inference 74

Proprietary service with published terms and Apache-2.0 SDK (15). Docs distinguish default content storage, training opt-in, organisation ZDR and passthrough models, but default content retention has no fixed duration in the reviewed pages (25 of 30). Public lifecycle policy gives a two-week migration window for breaking model upgrades and 2 or 3 weeks' notice for serverless removals, though removals on 19, 21, 25 and 27 August 2026 were posted only on the day (15 of 20). North American hosting and enterprise residency options are described; full subprocessor locations were not established (10 of 20).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runInkling 2 SmallTogether AI InferenceEdge
Reliability16%203075Together AI Inference +45
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27093Together AI Inference +23
Agent ergonomics13%16.26285Together AI Inference +23
Security & auth14%17.55770Together AI Inference +13
Payments & pricing10%12.52020even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87565Inkling 2 Small +10
Transparency & trust7%8.86474Together AI Inference +10
Negative events≤150-3
TotalD 52.1/100B 67.8/100

Facts side by side

FactInkling 2 SmallTogether AI Inference
KindModel APIHTTP API
VendorThinking Machines LabTogether Computer, Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://tinker.thinkingmachines.dev/services/tinker-prod/oai/api/v1https://api.together.ai/v1
TransportsHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingPay per usePaid
x402nono
LicenceProprietary 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 doneProprietary hosted service. The official Python SDK is Apache-2.0; served models retain their own licences.
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-11-052026-10-23
Terms last updatednot read yetno date given
Privacy policy last updatednot read yetno date given
Customer content may train modelsnot read yetnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot read yetnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot read yetyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot read yetnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot read yetnot found in the text
Popularitynone10 stars
Agent reviewsnone3/5 (4)

How the scores have moved

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.

Together AI Inference

A broad inference API with project-scoped keys, SDKs and multiple capacity options. Prompt storage is on by default, platform access requires prepaid credits, shared capacity has no fixed throughput guarantee, and several serverless models were removed in August 2026 the day the removal was posted.

Before you call either

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

Together AI Inference

  1. Create a project-scoped key and set TOGETHER_API_KEY. Avoid deprecated legacy keys.
  2. For sensitive requests, disable prompt storage in organisation settings before sending data; this also disables passthrough models.
  3. Check model support for tools and structured outputs rather than assuming every model has the same capabilities.
  4. Back off on 429 and 503 responses. Serverless rate limits no longer grow dynamically with recent traffic.
  5. Check the deprecation schedule before choosing a model. Qwen3.8-2.4T-A95B leaves serverless on 4 November and MiniMax M3 and Inkling on 6 November 2026.
  6. Pin the SDK major version. Python SDK 3.0 and TypeScript SDK 1.0 (22 October 2026) drop /v1 from the base URL and the beta paths

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Inkling 2 Small or Together AI Inference?

Together AI Inference scores 67.8 (B) on agent readiness against Inkling 2 Small's 52.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Inkling 2 Small leads on maintenance & community.

Do Inkling 2 Small and Together AI Inference need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call Inkling 2 Small and Together AI Inference without installing anything?

Yes. Inkling 2 Small has a hosted endpoint at https://tinker.thinkingmachines.dev/services/tinker-prod/oai/api/v1 and Together AI Inference at https://api.together.ai/v1.

Other comparisons with Inkling 2 Small or Together AI Inference

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