# Inkling 2 Small vs Together AI Inference (slim)

> Together AI Inference scores 67.8 (B) 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-together-inference.md (~6,000 tokens) · this version ~2,730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-together-inference.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-together-inference
- 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)

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.

- Inkling 2 Small: D 52.1, rank #899 of 1354 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/inkling-2-small.min.md
- Together AI Inference: B 67.8, rank #277 of 1354 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/together-inference.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 Maintenance & community, 75 against 65. Also No incidents deducted, where Together AI Inference loses 3 points for them.
- Together AI Inference, good 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.

| Category | Inkling 2 Small | Together AI Inference |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 30 | 75 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 70 | 93 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 62 | 85 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 57 | 70 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 20 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 75 | 65 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 64 | 74 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Inkling 2 Small | Together AI Inference |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Thinking Machines Lab | Together Computer, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://tinker.thinkingmachines.dev/services/tinker-prod/oai/api/v1` | `https://api.together.ai/v1` |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Paid |
| 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 hosted service. The official Python SDK is Apache-2.0; served models retain their own licences. |
| Last release | 2026-11-05 | 2026-10-23 |
| Terms last updated | not read yet | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | not read yet | no date given |
| 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 | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 10 stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- 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).)