{
  "data": {
    "a": {
      "slug": "inkling-2-small",
      "name": "Inkling 2 Small",
      "vendor": "Thinking Machines Lab",
      "vendorUrl": "https://thinkingmachines.ai",
      "kind": "model",
      "category": "inference",
      "summary": "Inkling 2 Small is Thinking Machines Lab's mixture-of-experts model, 594B total and 17B active parameters, taking text and images and returning text. It runs on Tinker for inference and fine-tuning, with open weights promised.",
      "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/inkling-2-small",
      "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/inkling-2-small.md",
      "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/inkling-2-small.min.md",
      "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/inkling-2-small.json",
      "dns": "inkling-2-small.grade.anchorterminal.com",
      "license": "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",
      "transports": [],
      "remoteUrl": "https://tinker.thinkingmachines.dev/services/tinker-prod/oai/api/v1",
      "packages": [],
      "auth": "api-key",
      "authNotes": "A Tinker API key from the Tinker console, read from TINKER_API_KEY and passed as the OpenAI client's api_key on the OpenAI-compatible endpoint, or used by the Tinker Python SDK. Sign-up is a browser flow at auth.thinkingmachines.ai, and the quickstart asks for payment details in Billing before training, per the tinker listing.",
      "pricing": "usage",
      "pricingNotes": "Serverless inference (beta) is $0.30 per million input tokens, $0.03 cached and $1.00 output, at 256K context. On the training side prefill is the same $0.30, sampling $1.00, and training $1.50 per million at 64K or $3.00 at 256K. No free tier is listed (checked 2026-11-06).",
      "priceSummary": "Pay per use",
      "where": "hosted",
      "x402": {
        "level": "no",
        "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 on Tinker's models and pricing page or its OpenAI-compatible API page, and Tinker bills against an account with payment details (checked 2026-11-06).",
        "endpoints": []
      },
      "toolCount": null,
      "popularity": {
        "githubStars": null,
        "npmWeekly": null,
        "pypiWeekly": null,
        "asOf": "2026-11-06"
      },
      "docsUrl": "https://thinkingmachines.ai/model-card/inkling-2-small/",
      "llmsTxt": "https://tinker-docs.thinkingmachines.ai/llms.txt",
      "capabilities": [
        "inference.llm"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "official",
        "hosted",
        "model",
        "moe",
        "multimodal",
        "vision",
        "reasoning",
        "openai-compatible",
        "usage-priced",
        "card-required",
        "beta",
        "llms-txt",
        "new"
      ],
      "lastRelease": "2026-11-05",
      "graded": true,
      "anchor": {
        "graded": true,
        "score": 52.1,
        "grade": "D",
        "agentReady": false,
        "rank": 999,
        "ranked": true,
        "rankOf": 1510,
        "categoryRank": 35,
        "methodology": "0.7",
        "run": "2026-10-01",
        "scores": {
          "ergonomics": 62,
          "maintenance": 75,
          "payments": 20,
          "reliability": 30,
          "schema": 70,
          "security": 57,
          "transparency": 64
        },
        "pending": [
          "performance",
          "tasks"
        ],
        "assessment": {
          "confidence": "medium",
          "date": "2026-11-06"
        },
        "negative": 0,
        "verdict": "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.",
        "bestFor": "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.",
        "strengths": [
          "OpenAI-compatible chat and completions endpoint, so the OpenAI SDKs work with a Tinker key",
          "$0.30 input, $0.03 cached and $1.00 output per million tokens, published without a login",
          "Text and image input, a 256K context on Tinker and up to 1M per the model card",
          "reasoning_effort from none to xhigh or a number, with reasoning returned separately",
          "A model card with intended use, limitations, training data sources and safety testing that includes outside red-teaming",
          "Thinking Machines says Apache 2.0 weights follow a week after launch"
        ],
        "weaknesses": [
          "Serverless inference and the OpenAI-compatible API are both labelled beta, with a waitlist for higher throughput",
          "No status page, SLA or published rate limits for serverless inference",
          "Tool-calling format and structured output aren't documented for this model",
          "No free tier, and sign-up is a browser flow with payment details",
          "Benchmark results are Thinking Machines' own, with no independent results yet"
        ],
        "agentNotes": [
          "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"
        ],
        "metrics": {
          "kind": "remote",
          "measured": false
        },
        "reviewCount": 0,
        "avgRating": 0,
        "history": [
          {
            "basis": "public evidence",
            "confidence": "medium",
            "grade": "D",
            "methodology": "0.7",
            "pending": [
              "performance",
              "tasks"
            ],
            "run": "2026-10-01",
            "runLabel": "October 2026 research run",
            "score": 52.1
          }
        ],
        "editorialScores": {
          "ergonomics": 62,
          "maintenance": 75,
          "payments": 20,
          "reliability": 30,
          "schema": 70,
          "security": 57,
          "transparency": 60
        },
        "provenanceScore": 68,
        "checked": {
          "categories": {
            "ergonomics": "2026-11-06",
            "maintenance": "2026-11-06",
            "payments": "2026-11-06",
            "reliability": "2026-11-06",
            "schema": "2026-11-06",
            "security": "2026-11-06",
            "transparency": "2026-11-06"
          },
          "last": "2026-11-06",
          "oldest": "2026-11-06",
          "stale": false,
          "staleAfterDays": 90
        }
      },
      "connect": {
        "http": "curl https://tinker.thinkingmachines.dev/services/tinker-prod/oai/api/v1/chat/completions \\\n  -H \"Authorization: Bearer $TINKER_API_KEY\" \\\n  -H \"Content-Type: application/json\" \\\n  -d '{\n    \"model\": \"thinkingmachines/Inkling-2-Small:peft:262144:sampling-nvfp4\",\n    \"messages\": [{\"role\": \"user\", \"content\": \"Hello!\"}],\n    \"reasoning_effort\": \"low\"\n  }'"
      },
      "letme": {
        "capability": "https://letme.dev/inference.llm",
        "tool": "https://letme.dev/inkling-2-small"
      },
      "sameCompany": [
        "inkling",
        "inkling-small"
      ],
      "sameModel": [
        "tinker"
      ],
      "area": "models",
      "provenance": {
        "legalEntity": "Thinking Machines Lab, Inc. (named as provider on the model card)",
        "domain": "thinkingmachines.ai",
        "domainRegistered": "",
        "domainNote": "Not looked up: RDAP isn't requested under the 1 November 2026 rules.",
        "endpointOnVendorDomain": true,
        "terms": "https://thinkingmachines.ai/legal/terms/",
        "privacy": "https://thinkingmachines.ai/legal/privacy/",
        "statusPage": "",
        "changelog": "https://tinker-docs.thinkingmachines.ai/changelog/",
        "securityTxt": "valid",
        "checked": "2026-11-06",
        "notes": [
          "The launch post and model card are on thinkingmachines.ai and name Thinking Machines Lab, Inc. as provider. The OpenAI-compatible endpoint is on thinkingmachines.dev, which Tinker's own docs give as the production base URL, so it's read as a domain the vendor controls; its registration wasn't looked up.",
          "Thinking Machines' terms bar scraping the Services, which the 4 November re-check read as a ban and paused. The founder decided on 6 November 2026 that reading at a person's pace is fine, so four pages were read one at a time: the launch post, the model card, the models and pricing page and the OpenAI-compatible API page. tinker-docs.thinkingmachines.ai has no robots.txt; thinkingmachines.ai's has no rules.",
          "security.txt lists security-reports@thinkingmachines.ai and expires 2029-07-13, per the 2 November reading.",
          "No status page was found."
        ],
        "score": 68
      },
      "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/inkling-2-small.json",
      "live": {
        "slug": "inkling-2-small",
        "probe": {
          "target": "https://tinker.thinkingmachines.dev/services/tinker-prod/oai/api/v1",
          "method": "get",
          "lastAt": "2026-11-07T19:22:13.254155047Z",
          "lastOk": true,
          "lastStatus": 404,
          "lastMs": 547,
          "authRequired": false,
          "uptime24h": 100,
          "uptime30d": 100,
          "p50ms24h": 415,
          "p95ms24h": 509,
          "samples24h": 238,
          "samples30d": 383,
          "days": [
            {
              "date": "2026-11-06",
              "probes": 186,
              "ok": 186
            },
            {
              "date": "2026-11-07",
              "probes": 197,
              "ok": 197
            }
          ]
        },
        "securityTxt": {
          "url": "https://thinkingmachines.ai/.well-known/security.txt",
          "state": "valid",
          "expires": "2029-07-13T07:00:00.000Z",
          "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T16:00:36.176504391Z"
        },
        "llmsTxt": {
          "url": "https://tinker-docs.thinkingmachines.ai/llms.txt",
          "ok": true,
          "status": 200,
          "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T15:32:45.090387547Z"
        },
        "pages": [
          {
            "url": "https://tinker-docs.thinkingmachines.ai/changelog/",
            "kind": "changelog",
            "status": 200,
            "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:22:17.310423056Z",
            "changedAt": "2026-11-07T14:22:17.310423056Z",
            "fingerprint": "a3a2317910fe"
          },
          {
            "url": "https://thinkingmachines.ai/legal/privacy/",
            "kind": "privacy",
            "status": 200,
            "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:22:13.132635873Z",
            "changedAt": "2026-11-06T13:43:40.660240815Z",
            "fingerprint": "3c33a4a74c61"
          },
          {
            "url": "https://thinkingmachines.ai/legal/terms/",
            "kind": "terms",
            "status": 200,
            "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:22:15.249121537Z",
            "changedAt": "2026-11-06T13:43:42.918165055Z",
            "fingerprint": "08c6ceca5dbb"
          }
        ],
        "updatedAt": "2026-11-07T19:22:13.254155047Z"
      }
    },
    "answer": "Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) scores 88.7 (AA) on agent readiness against Inkling 2 Small's 52.1 (D), and leads in every scored category.",
    "b": {
      "slug": "vertex-ai",
      "name": "Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
      "vendor": "Google Cloud",
      "vendorUrl": "https://cloud.google.com/products/gemini-enterprise-agent-platform",
      "kind": "model",
      "category": "inference",
      "summary": "Google Cloud's enterprise API for Gemini models and Model Garden partner and open models, including Claude, Llama and Qwen, on the platform formerly called Vertex AI, with regional endpoints, provisioned throughput and IAM access.",
      "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vertex-ai",
      "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vertex-ai.md",
      "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vertex-ai.min.md",
      "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vertex-ai.json",
      "dns": "vertex-ai.grade.anchorterminal.com",
      "repo": "https://github.com/googleapis/python-genai",
      "license": "Proprietary service under the Google Cloud Platform terms. Partner models carry their providers' terms. The Google Gen AI SDKs are Apache-2.0",
      "transports": [
        "http"
      ],
      "remoteUrl": "https://aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1",
      "packages": [
        {
          "registry": "pypi",
          "name": "google-genai"
        },
        {
          "registry": "npm",
          "name": "@google/genai"
        },
        {
          "registry": "pypi",
          "name": "google-cloud-aiplatform"
        }
      ],
      "auth": "mixed",
      "authNotes": "OAuth 2.0 bearer tokens from application default credentials or service accounts, with IAM roles on a Google Cloud project, which the docs recommend for production. Google Cloud API keys, including express mode keys (Preview) that need no project or location in the URL, are recommended for testing. The OpenAI-compatible endpoint accepts only Google Cloud auth.",
      "pricing": "usage",
      "pricingNotes": "Per-token prices per model, with global and higher non-global rates and Standard, Priority and Flex/Batch options. Gemini 4 Argon costs $4/$20 per million, with 50% credits back through 2026-11-30. Gemini 3.8 Flash costs $0.75/$3.75 through 2026-12-31, then $1.50/$7.50. Claude Opus 5.5 $4/$20. Batch and Flex half price on Gemini. Only requests that return 200 are charged. Express mode gives new users 90 days free with no billing details (https://cloud.google.com/gemini-enterprise-agent-platform/generative-ai/pricing).",
      "priceSummary": "from $0.30 / 1M in",
      "where": "hosted",
      "x402": {
        "level": "no",
        "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 on the pricing page or in the express mode docs (checked 2026-11-06). Access needs a Google account and, after the express trial, a Cloud billing account.",
        "endpoints": []
      },
      "toolCount": null,
      "popularity": {
        "githubStars": null,
        "npmWeekly": null,
        "pypiWeekly": 20917051,
        "asOf": "2026-11-06"
      },
      "docsUrl": "https://docs.cloud.google.com/gemini-enterprise-agent-platform/models/start",
      "rateLimitsUrl": "https://docs.cloud.google.com/gemini-enterprise-agent-platform/models/standard-paygo",
      "openapi": "https://aiplatform.googleapis.com/$discovery/rest?version=v1",
      "capabilities": [
        "inference.llm",
        "inference.open-weights"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "official",
        "hosted",
        "model",
        "open-weights",
        "enterprise",
        "usage-priced",
        "free-tier",
        "no-card",
        "python",
        "typescript",
        "status-page"
      ],
      "lastRelease": "2026-11-05",
      "graded": true,
      "anchor": {
        "graded": true,
        "score": 88.7,
        "grade": "AA",
        "agentReady": true,
        "rank": 2,
        "ranked": true,
        "rankOf": 1510,
        "categoryRank": 1,
        "methodology": "0.7",
        "run": "2026-10-01",
        "scores": {
          "ergonomics": 97,
          "maintenance": 91,
          "payments": 40,
          "reliability": 99,
          "schema": 94,
          "security": 97,
          "transparency": 90
        },
        "pending": [
          "performance",
          "tasks"
        ],
        "assessment": {
          "confidence": "medium",
          "date": "2026-11-06"
        },
        "negative": 0,
        "verdict": "Gemini, Claude and open models through one Google Cloud API with IAM, regional endpoints, schema-guaranteed JSON and a 99.5 per cent SLA, and no Vertex incident on the Cloud status page in the 90 days to 6 November 2026. Gemini 4 Argon and 3.8 Flash have 12-month availability, but short-term Flash models get a 95 per cent SLA.",
        "bestFor": "Google Cloud customers who need Gemini with residency, VPC-SC, provisioned throughput and an SLA, or Claude under a Google bill.",
        "strengths": [
          "No incident naming Vertex or Gemini on status.cloud.google.com between 8 July and 6 October 2026",
          "Public discovery document for the v1 API (revision 20260930) with 1,128 methods and 1,493 schemas",
          "JSON output follows a supplied `response_schema` when `response_mime_type` is `application/json`",
          "Express mode gives new users 90 days free with an API key and no billing details",
          "Only requests that return 200 are charged",
          "Gemini 4 Argon, GA since 13 October 2026, has a 1,048,576-token unified limit at $4/$20 per million tokens"
        ],
        "weaknesses": [
          "The SLA drops from 99.5 to 95 per cent for short-term availability models, Gemini 3.7 and 3.6 Flash among them",
          "Gemini 3.6 Flash, released 21 July 2026, retires on 19 November 2026, and 3.7 Flash on 28 January 2027",
          "Zero retention needs an exception request, and flagged prompts may be kept up to 90 days",
          "The Interactions API stores prompts and responses unless `store` is set to false",
          "No llms.txt on the docs site, and the docs mix the Vertex AI and Agent Platform names",
          "The model versions table still listed Gemini 2.5 Pro, Flash and Flash-Lite as available after their 20 October 2026 retirement date"
        ],
        "agentNotes": [
          "Call the `global` location on aiplatform.googleapis.com unless data residency requires a Region. The 429 guide says it spreads load and reduces errors",
          "Back off exponentially on 429 `Resource exhausted`. On Standard PayGo it means shared capacity is busy, not a fixed quota",
          "Send `response_schema` with `response_mime_type: application/json`. JSON mode alone doesn't guarantee valid output",
          "Set `store` to false on Interactions API calls. It defaults to true and keeps prompts and responses",
          "Pin `gemini-4-argon` or `gemini-3.8-flash`, both in the 12-month tier, rather than 3.7 or 3.6 Flash, which retire on 28 January 2027 and 19 November 2026"
        ],
        "metrics": {
          "kind": "remote",
          "measured": false
        },
        "reviewCount": 0,
        "avgRating": 0,
        "history": [
          {
            "basis": "public evidence",
            "confidence": "medium",
            "grade": "AA",
            "methodology": "0.7",
            "pending": [
              "performance",
              "tasks"
            ],
            "run": "2026-10-01",
            "runLabel": "October 2026 research run",
            "score": 88.7
          }
        ],
        "editorialScores": {
          "ergonomics": 97,
          "maintenance": 91,
          "payments": 40,
          "reliability": 99,
          "schema": 94,
          "security": 97,
          "transparency": 83
        },
        "provenanceScore": 97,
        "checked": {
          "categories": {
            "ergonomics": "2026-11-06",
            "maintenance": "2026-11-06",
            "payments": "2026-11-06",
            "reliability": "2026-11-06",
            "schema": "2026-11-06",
            "security": "2026-11-06",
            "transparency": "2026-11-06"
          },
          "last": "2026-11-06",
          "oldest": "2026-11-06",
          "stale": false,
          "staleAfterDays": 90
        }
      },
      "connect": {
        "install": "pip install google-genai   # or: npm i @google/genai",
        "http": "curl -X POST \\\n  -H \"Content-Type: application/json\" \\\n  -H \"Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)\" \\\n  \"https://aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1/projects/${GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT}/locations/global/publishers/google/models/gemini-3.8-flash:generateContent\" \\\n  -d '{\"contents\":{\"role\":\"user\",\"parts\":{\"text\":\"Explain how AI works in a few words\"}}}'"
      },
      "letme": {
        "capability": "https://letme.dev/inference.llm",
        "tool": "https://letme.dev/vertex-ai"
      },
      "sameCompany": [
        "gemini-api",
        "gemini-embedding",
        "vertex-ai-tuning",
        "cloud-run-gpus",
        "google-model-armor",
        "google-imagen",
        "google-veo",
        "google-lyria",
        "google-speech-to-text",
        "google-cloud-tts",
        "gemini-live",
        "google-adk",
        "google-memory-bank",
        "google-secret-manager",
        "google-cloud-document-ai",
        "google-weather-api",
        "chrome-devtools-mcp",
        "google-maps-platform",
        "google-cloud-translation",
        "google-calendar-api",
        "firebase-cloud-messaging",
        "google-cloud-storage",
        "google-drive-api",
        "gemini-enterprise",
        "gemini-cli",
        "google-search-console",
        "google-ads-api",
        "google-forms",
        "google-sheets-api",
        "gmail-api",
        "google-people-api"
      ],
      "area": "models",
      "unitPrices": [
        {
          "item": "Grounding with Google Search over 5,000 a month (Gemini 3)",
          "unit": "1k-requests",
          "usd": 14
        }
      ],
      "provenance": {
        "legalEntity": "Google LLC",
        "domain": "google.com",
        "domainRegistered": "1997-09-15",
        "domainNote": "The endpoint is on googleapis.com, Google's API domain. google.com was registered in 1997.",
        "endpointOnVendorDomain": true,
        "terms": "https://cloud.google.com/terms",
        "privacy": "https://policies.google.com/privacy",
        "statusPage": "https://status.cloud.google.com",
        "changelog": "https://docs.cloud.google.com/gemini-enterprise-agent-platform/release-notes",
        "securityTxt": "valid",
        "checked": "2026-11-06",
        "notes": [
          "The product runs under the Google Cloud Platform terms, whose contracting Google entity depends on the billing country, as for vertex-ai-tuning.",
          "www.google.com/.well-known/security.txt expires on 2030-04-01 (read 2026-11-06).",
          "docs.cloud.google.com has no llms.txt (404 on 6 October 2026), but each docs page answers as Markdown when `.md.txt` is added to its URL."
        ],
        "score": 97
      },
      "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vertex-ai.json",
      "live": {
        "slug": "vertex-ai",
        "probe": {
          "target": "https://aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1",
          "method": "get",
          "lastAt": "2026-11-07T19:22:43.041024218Z",
          "lastOk": true,
          "lastStatus": 404,
          "lastMs": 664,
          "authRequired": false,
          "uptime24h": 100,
          "uptime30d": 100,
          "p50ms24h": 118,
          "p95ms24h": 752,
          "samples24h": 210,
          "samples30d": 210,
          "days": [
            {
              "date": "2026-11-06",
              "probes": 13,
              "ok": 13
            },
            {
              "date": "2026-11-07",
              "probes": 197,
              "ok": 197
            }
          ]
        },
        "versions": [
          {
            "registry": "github",
            "name": "googleapis/python-genai",
            "version": "v3.0.0",
            "released": "2026-11-06",
            "seenAt": "2026-11-07T00:15:33.519504561Z"
          },
          {
            "registry": "npm",
            "name": "@google/genai",
            "version": "3.0.0",
            "seenAt": "2026-11-07T00:15:31.639429892Z"
          },
          {
            "registry": "pypi",
            "name": "google-cloud-aiplatform",
            "version": "2.7.0",
            "released": "2026-10-28",
            "seenAt": "2026-11-07T00:15:32.521225598Z"
          },
          {
            "registry": "pypi",
            "name": "google-genai",
            "version": "3.0.0",
            "released": "2026-11-06",
            "seenAt": "2026-11-07T00:15:31.485691571Z"
          }
        ],
        "githubStars": 4057,
        "npmWeekly": 31989360,
        "pypiWeekly": 38431674,
        "securityTxt": {
          "url": "https://google.com/.well-known/security.txt",
          "state": "valid",
          "expires": "2030-04-01T00:00:00z",
          "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T16:01:22.068349931Z"
        },
        "pages": [
          {
            "url": "https://cloud.google.com/gemini-enterprise-agent-platform/generative-ai/pricing",
            "kind": "deprecations",
            "status": 200,
            "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:01:16.257808105Z",
            "changedAt": "2026-11-07T14:01:16.257808105Z",
            "fingerprint": "a4fe253bd23f"
          }
        ],
        "updatedAt": "2026-11-07T19:22:43.041024218Z"
      }
    },
    "edges": [
      {
        "by": 69,
        "category": "reliability",
        "leads": "vertex-ai",
        "name": "Reliability",
        "reasons": {
          "a": "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.",
          "b": "Google Cloud status dashboard with per-product history (20). Its incident feed, read on 6 November, has no incident naming Vertex Gemini API, Gemini or the Agent Platform in the 90 days. The regional incidents of 20 August, 1 September and 20 October (europe-west2) and the Cloud Storage incident of 8 and 9 October didn't list it among affected products (30). Standard PayGo publishes usage tiers by 30-day spend with baseline throughput, 2,000,000 to 50,000,000 tokens a minute for Flash models and 500,000 to 10,000,000 for Pro, plus quota tables for other methods (15). A 429 page says to use the global endpoint and truncated exponential backoff, and a retry-strategy page (15). SLA of 99.5 per cent a month on generateContent and streamGenerateContent, 95 per cent for short-term availability models, and a latency SLO on Provisioned Throughput. The 429 page says pay-as-you-go 429s don't count toward the SLA error rate (10). Gemini 4 Argon reached GA on 13 October and Gemini 3.8 Flash moved to the 12-month tier, and the v1 API, 3.5 Flash-Lite and Claude Opus 5.5 are GA, but express mode was Preview at the 6 October check (9 of 10, up from 8). Up from 98 on 6 October."
        },
        "scores": {
          "a": 30,
          "b": 99
        }
      },
      {
        "by": 40,
        "category": "security",
        "leads": "vertex-ai",
        "name": "Security \u0026 auth",
        "reasons": {
          "a": "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.",
          "b": "Model reading. OAuth 2.0 with IAM roles and service accounts, which the docs recommend for production, with API keys for testing. No key in a query string found in the docs we read (30). The training restriction in the Service Specific Terms says Google won't use customer data to train or fine-tune any model without permission, GA and pre-GA alike (20). Default in-memory caching for 24 hours that can be disabled, flagged prompts logged up to 90 days unless an abuse-monitoring exception is granted or the customer has a Cloud Master Agreement, the Interactions API storing by default, and Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 requiring 30-day retention shared with Anthropic (12 of 15, a judgement call matching the Fable exception on the Anthropic and Bedrock listings). Cloud Audit Logs, with Data Access logs off until enabled, and optional request-response logging to BigQuery (15). google.com security.txt valid to 2030-04-01, the Google VRP, and Generative AI on the platform in ISO 27001, 27017 and 27018 and SOC 1, 2 and 3 scope per the 1 October services-in-scope check for vertex-ai-tuning, not re-read on 6 October (20)."
        },
        "scores": {
          "a": 57,
          "b": 97
        }
      },
      {
        "by": 35,
        "category": "ergonomics",
        "leads": "vertex-ai",
        "name": "Agent ergonomics",
        "reasons": {
          "a": "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.",
          "b": "Model reading of the checklist (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). Function calling with `FunctionCallingConfig` mode ANY and `allowedFunctionNames` to force a named tool (20). Schema-guaranteed JSON output (15). Implicit and explicit context caching, cached input at 0.1x, $0.075 per million on 3.8 Flash through 31 December (15). 1,048,576-token context on 3.8 Flash, a unified 1,048,576-token input and output limit on Gemini 4 Argon, and 1,000,000 on Claude Opus 5.5 (15). Flex/Batch at half price on Gemini (10). Gen AI SDKs for Python and JavaScript among others, and the OpenAI libraries work with Google Cloud auth (10). 429 handling documented per quota framework, with standard Google status codes elsewhere (12 of 15)."
        },
        "scores": {
          "a": 62,
          "b": 97
        }
      },
      {
        "by": 26,
        "category": "transparency",
        "leads": "vertex-ai",
        "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust",
        "reasons": {
          "a": "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.",
          "b": "Closed service under the Google Cloud terms, with the Gen AI SDKs under Apache-2.0 and a public discovery document (18, as for Bedrock's open service models). The zero data retention and abuse monitoring pages agree with the Cloud terms and give periods for each case, 24 hours in memory, up to 90 days for flagged prompts, 30 days for Advanced AI models, 3 days for Search grounding logs and 30 days for Maps grounding, and say which can't be switched off (27 of 30). A dated model versions table with release and retirement dates and a stated 12-month or 45-day policy, but on 6 November it still listed Gemini 2.5 Pro, Flash and Flash-Lite as available with a 20 October 2026 retirement date and left them out of the retired table (18 of 20, down from 20). The Cloud subprocessor list with locations, per the 1 October vertex-ai-tuning check, regional and multi-region endpoints, and per-model ML processing locations on the partner model cards (20)."
        },
        "scores": {
          "a": 64,
          "b": 90
        }
      },
      {
        "by": 24,
        "category": "schema",
        "leads": "vertex-ai",
        "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation",
        "reasons": {
          "a": "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.",
          "b": "Model reading. Keyless discovery document for the Agent Platform API v1, revision 20260930, with 1,128 methods and 1,493 schemas (25). No llms.txt, but every docs page answers as Markdown at `.md.txt`, counted as for vertex-ai-tuning (10). Model cards give limits, capabilities and retirement dates, and the 3.8 Flash card says when to use 3.7 Flash instead, but the docs mix the Vertex AI and Agent Platform names, and the OpenAI page tells new users to call the Gemini Developer API instead (16 of 20). Structured output with `response_schema` and `response_mime_type: application/json` always follows the schema per the docs, and complex schemas fail with a 400 (15). Examples on every page and a 429 guide, but we found no full error code list for generateContent (13 of 15). Versioned v1 and v1beta1 APIs and release notes with entries on most working days, newest 5 November 2026 (15)."
        },
        "scores": {
          "a": 70,
          "b": 94
        }
      },
      {
        "by": 20,
        "category": "payments",
        "leads": "vertex-ai",
        "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing",
        "reasons": {
          "a": "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.",
          "b": "No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-token prices per model and option published without a login (20). Express mode gives new Google Cloud users 90 days free within quotas with no billing details, though it's in Preview and needs a @gmail.com account (20). A person signs up in the console to get the express key (0)."
        },
        "scores": {
          "a": 20,
          "b": 40
        }
      }
    ],
    "facts": [
      {
        "a": "Model API",
        "b": "Model API",
        "name": "Kind"
      },
      {
        "a": "Thinking Machines Lab",
        "b": "Google Cloud",
        "name": "Vendor"
      },
      {
        "a": "https://tinker.thinkingmachines.dev/services/tinker-prod/oai/api/v1",
        "b": "https://aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1",
        "name": "Hosted endpoint"
      },
      {
        "a": "",
        "b": "HTTP",
        "name": "Transports"
      },
      {
        "a": "API key",
        "b": "OAuth or key",
        "name": "Auth"
      },
      {
        "a": "Pay per use",
        "b": "Pay per use",
        "name": "Pricing"
      },
      {
        "a": "no",
        "b": "no",
        "name": "x402"
      },
      {
        "a": "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",
        "b": "Proprietary service under the Google Cloud Platform terms. Partner models carry their providers' terms. The Google Gen AI SDKs are Apache-2.0",
        "name": "Licence"
      },
      {
        "a": "no",
        "b": "no",
        "name": "Read-only variant documented"
      },
      {
        "a": "yes",
        "b": "no",
        "name": "llms.txt"
      },
      {
        "a": "2026-11-05",
        "b": "2026-11-05",
        "name": "Last release"
      },
      {
        "a": "not read yet",
        "b": "2026-09-02",
        "name": "Terms last updated"
      },
      {
        "a": "not read yet",
        "b": "2026-10-01",
        "name": "Privacy policy last updated"
      },
      {
        "a": "not read yet",
        "b": "yes",
        "name": "Customer content may train models"
      },
      {
        "a": "not read yet",
        "b": "not found in the text",
        "name": "Terms restrict automated access"
      },
      {
        "a": "not read yet",
        "b": "not found in the text",
        "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking"
      },
      {
        "a": "not read yet",
        "b": "not found in the text",
        "name": "Terms or service can change without notice"
      },
      {
        "a": "not read yet",
        "b": "not found in the text",
        "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver"
      },
      {
        "a": "none",
        "b": "20.9M PyPI/wk",
        "name": "Popularity"
      }
    ],
    "faq": [
      {
        "answer": "Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) scores 88.7 (AA) on agent readiness against Inkling 2 Small's 52.1 (D), and leads in every scored category.",
        "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Inkling 2 Small or Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)?"
      },
      {
        "answer": "Inkling 2 Small needs an API key. Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.",
        "question": "Do Inkling 2 Small and Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) need an API key?"
      },
      {
        "answer": "Yes. Inkling 2 Small has a hosted endpoint at https://tinker.thinkingmachines.dev/services/tinker-prod/oai/api/v1 and Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) at https://aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1.",
        "question": "Can an agent call Inkling 2 Small and Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) without installing anything?"
      }
    ],
    "goodFor": [
      {
        "aheadOn": null,
        "also": null,
        "goodFor": "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.",
        "slug": "inkling-2-small",
        "watchFor": "Serverless inference and the OpenAI-compatible API are both labelled beta, with a waitlist for higher throughput"
      },
      {
        "aheadOn": [
          "Reliability, 99 against 30",
          "Schema \u0026 documentation, 94 against 70",
          "Agent ergonomics, 97 against 62",
          "Security \u0026 auth, 97 against 57",
          "Payments \u0026 pricing, 40 against 20",
          "Maintenance \u0026 community, 91 against 75",
          "Transparency \u0026 trust, 90 against 64"
        ],
        "also": [
          "Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better",
          "Free to start without a card"
        ],
        "goodFor": "Google Cloud customers who need Gemini with residency, VPC-SC, provisioned throughput and an SLA, or Claude under a Google bill.",
        "slug": "vertex-ai",
        "watchFor": "The SLA drops from 99.5 to 95 per cent for short-term availability models, Gemini 3.7 and 3.6 Flash among them"
      }
    ],
    "history": null,
    "job": {
      "capability": "inference.llm",
      "name": "LLM inference"
    },
    "others": [
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-bedrock-vs-inkling-2-small"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-bedrock-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "Amazon Bedrock vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-bedrock-vs-vertex-ai"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-inkling-2-small.json",
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-inkling-2-small"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "Claude API vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-vertex-ai"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-inkling-2-small.json",
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-inkling-2-small"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "Antseed vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-vertex-ai"
      },
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        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-openai-vs-inkling-2-small.json",
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-openai-vs-inkling-2-small"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-openai-vs-vertex-ai.json",
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-openai-vs-vertex-ai"
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-inkling-2-small"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "BlockRun.AI vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-vertex-ai"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebras-inference-vs-inkling-2-small.json",
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebras-inference-vs-inkling-2-small"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebras-inference-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "Cerebras Inference vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
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      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-inkling-2-small.json",
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-inkling-2-small"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-vertex-ai.json",
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-vertex-ai"
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-inkling-2-small"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-vertex-ai.json",
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-vertex-ai"
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-inkling-2-small"
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        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-vertex-ai.json",
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        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-inkling-2-small.json",
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-inkling-2-small"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-vertex-ai.json",
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-vertex-ai"
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      {
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-inkling-2-small"
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      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-vertex-ai.json",
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-vertex-ai"
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      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/eden-ai-vs-inkling-2-small.json",
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/eden-ai-vs-inkling-2-small"
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      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/eden-ai-vs-vertex-ai.json",
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/eden-ai-vs-vertex-ai"
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      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-inkling-2-small.json",
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-inkling-2-small"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-vertex-ai.json",
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fireworks-inference-vs-vertex-ai"
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-vertex-ai"
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-meta-model-api"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-minimax-api.json",
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        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-minimax-api"
      },
      {
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      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-muse-spark-open.json",
        "title": "Inkling 2 Small vs Muse Spark Open",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-muse-spark-open"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-nemotron-3-5-super-vl.json",
        "title": "Inkling 2 Small vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-nemotron-3-5-super-vl"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-novita-ai.json",
        "title": "Inkling 2 Small vs Novita AI",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-novita-ai"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-openai-api.json",
        "title": "Inkling 2 Small vs OpenAI API",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-openai-api"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-openrouter.json",
        "title": "Inkling 2 Small vs OpenRouter",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-openrouter"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-prism-inference.json",
        "title": "Inkling 2 Small vs Prism Inference",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-prism-inference"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-ramp-router.json",
        "title": "Inkling 2 Small vs Router.com (Ramp Router)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-ramp-router"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-reflection-beam.json",
        "title": "Inkling 2 Small vs Beam 1.0",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-reflection-beam"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-routerplus.json",
        "title": "Inkling 2 Small vs RouterPlus",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-routerplus"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-sambanova.json",
        "title": "Inkling 2 Small vs SambaCloud",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-sambanova"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-siliconflow.json",
        "title": "Inkling 2 Small vs SiliconFlow",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-siliconflow"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-simplismart.json",
        "title": "Inkling 2 Small vs Simplismart",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-simplismart"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-stepfun-api.json",
        "title": "Inkling 2 Small vs StepFun API",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-stepfun-api"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-swe-2-flash.json",
        "title": "Inkling 2 Small vs SWE-2 Flash",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-swe-2-flash"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-tencent-tokenhub.json",
        "title": "Inkling 2 Small vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-tencent-tokenhub"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-together-inference.json",
        "title": "Inkling 2 Small vs Together AI Inference",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-together-inference"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.json",
        "title": "Inkling 2 Small vs Vercel AI Gateway",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-vercel-ai-gateway"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-xai-api.json",
        "title": "Inkling 2 Small vs xAI API (Grok)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-xai-api"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "Jais 3 vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-vertex-ai"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meta-model-api-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "Meta Model API vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meta-model-api-vs-vertex-ai"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-api-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "MiniMax API vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-api-vs-vertex-ai"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-api-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "Mistral AI API vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-api-vs-vertex-ai"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-spark-open-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "Muse Spark Open vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-spark-open-vs-vertex-ai"
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      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novita-ai-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "Novita AI vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novita-ai-vs-vertex-ai"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-api-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "OpenAI API vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-api-vs-vertex-ai"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "OpenRouter vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-vertex-ai"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prism-inference-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "Prism Inference vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prism-inference-vs-vertex-ai"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ramp-router-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "Router.com (Ramp Router) vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ramp-router-vs-vertex-ai"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "Beam 1.0 vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-vertex-ai"
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      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/routerplus-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "RouterPlus vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/routerplus-vs-vertex-ai"
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      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "SambaCloud vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-vertex-ai"
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      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/siliconflow-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "SiliconFlow vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/siliconflow-vs-vertex-ai"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/simplismart-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "Simplismart vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/simplismart-vs-vertex-ai"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/stepfun-api-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "StepFun API vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/stepfun-api-vs-vertex-ai"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/swe-2-flash-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "SWE-2 Flash vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/swe-2-flash-vs-vertex-ai"
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      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tencent-tokenhub-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "Tencent Cloud TokenHub vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tencent-tokenhub-vs-vertex-ai"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/together-inference-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "Together AI Inference vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/together-inference-vs-vertex-ai"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/vercel-ai-gateway-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "Vercel AI Gateway vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/vercel-ai-gateway-vs-vertex-ai"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/vertex-ai-vs-xai-api.json",
        "title": "Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) vs xAI API (Grok)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/vertex-ai-vs-xai-api"
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      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nemotron-3-5-super-vl-vs-vertex-ai.json",
        "title": "Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nemotron-3-5-super-vl-vs-vertex-ai"
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    "scores": [
      {
        "by": 69,
        "edge": "vertex-ai",
        "inkling-2-small": 30,
        "key": "reliability",
        "name": "Reliability",
        "vertex-ai": 99,
        "weight": 16
      },
      {
        "key": "performance",
        "name": "Performance",
        "pending": true,
        "weight": 10
      },
      {
        "by": 24,
        "edge": "vertex-ai",
        "inkling-2-small": 70,
        "key": "schema",
        "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation",
        "vertex-ai": 94,
        "weight": 13
      },
      {
        "by": 35,
        "edge": "vertex-ai",
        "inkling-2-small": 62,
        "key": "ergonomics",
        "name": "Agent ergonomics",
        "vertex-ai": 97,
        "weight": 13
      },
      {
        "by": 40,
        "edge": "vertex-ai",
        "inkling-2-small": 57,
        "key": "security",
        "name": "Security \u0026 auth",
        "vertex-ai": 97,
        "weight": 14
      },
      {
        "by": 20,
        "edge": "vertex-ai",
        "inkling-2-small": 20,
        "key": "payments",
        "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing",
        "vertex-ai": 40,
        "weight": 10
      },
      {
        "key": "tasks",
        "name": "Task success",
        "pending": true,
        "weight": 10
      },
      {
        "by": 16,
        "edge": "vertex-ai",
        "inkling-2-small": 75,
        "key": "maintenance",
        "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community",
        "vertex-ai": 91,
        "weight": 7
      },
      {
        "by": 26,
        "edge": "vertex-ai",
        "inkling-2-small": 64,
        "key": "transparency",
        "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust",
        "vertex-ai": 90,
        "weight": 7
      }
    ],
    "summary": "Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) scores 88.7 (AA) on agent readiness against Inkling 2 Small's 52.1 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do llm inference.",
    "tasks": null,
    "tutorials": [],
    "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.",
      "vertex-ai": "Gemini, Claude and open models through one Google Cloud API with IAM, regional endpoints, schema-guaranteed JSON and a 99.5 per cent SLA, and no Vertex incident on the Cloud status page in the 90 days to 6 November 2026. Gemini 4 Argon and 3.8 Flash have 12-month availability, but short-term Flash models get a 95 per cent SLA."
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  "markdown": "Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) scores 88.7 (AA) on agent readiness against Inkling 2 Small's 52.1 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do llm inference.\n\n- Inkling 2 Small: grade D, 52.1/100, rank #999 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/inkling-2-small.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/inkling-2-small.json\n- Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform): grade AA, 88.7/100, rank #2 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vertex-ai.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vertex-ai.json\n- Best model APIs and inference for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/inference/index.md\n- All 830 models comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inference/index.md\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### Inkling 2 Small (D)\n\nGood 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.\n\nWatch for: Serverless inference and the OpenAI-compatible API are both labelled beta, with a waitlist for higher throughput\n\n### Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) (AA)\n\nGood for: Google Cloud customers who need Gemini with residency, VPC-SC, provisioned throughput and an SLA, or Claude under a Google bill.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 99 against 30\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 94 against 70\n- Agent ergonomics, 97 against 62\n- Security \u0026 auth, 97 against 57\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 40 against 20\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 91 against 75\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 90 against 64\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better\n- Free to start without a card\n\nWatch for: The SLA drops from 99.5 to 95 per cent for short-term availability models, Gemini 3.7 and 3.6 Flash among them\n\n\n## Why the edge\n\n### Reliability: Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +69\n\n- 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.\n- Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) (99): Google Cloud status dashboard with per-product history (20). Its incident feed, read on 6 November, has no incident naming Vertex Gemini API, Gemini or the Agent Platform in the 90 days. The regional incidents of 20 August, 1 September and 20 October (europe-west2) and the Cloud Storage incident of 8 and 9 October didn't list it among affected products (30). Standard PayGo publishes usage tiers by 30-day spend with baseline throughput, 2,000,000 to 50,000,000 tokens a minute for Flash models and 500,000 to 10,000,000 for Pro, plus quota tables for other methods (15). A 429 page says to use the global endpoint and truncated exponential backoff, and a retry-strategy page (15). SLA of 99.5 per cent a month on generateContent and streamGenerateContent, 95 per cent for short-term availability models, and a latency SLO on Provisioned Throughput. The 429 page says pay-as-you-go 429s don't count toward the SLA error rate (10). Gemini 4 Argon reached GA on 13 October and Gemini 3.8 Flash moved to the 12-month tier, and the v1 API, 3.5 Flash-Lite and Claude Opus 5.5 are GA, but express mode was Preview at the 6 October check (9 of 10, up from 8). Up from 98 on 6 October.\n\n### Security \u0026 auth: Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +40\n\n- 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.\n- Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) (97): Model reading. OAuth 2.0 with IAM roles and service accounts, which the docs recommend for production, with API keys for testing. No key in a query string found in the docs we read (30). The training restriction in the Service Specific Terms says Google won't use customer data to train or fine-tune any model without permission, GA and pre-GA alike (20). Default in-memory caching for 24 hours that can be disabled, flagged prompts logged up to 90 days unless an abuse-monitoring exception is granted or the customer has a Cloud Master Agreement, the Interactions API storing by default, and Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 requiring 30-day retention shared with Anthropic (12 of 15, a judgement call matching the Fable exception on the Anthropic and Bedrock listings). Cloud Audit Logs, with Data Access logs off until enabled, and optional request-response logging to BigQuery (15). google.com security.txt valid to 2030-04-01, the Google VRP, and Generative AI on the platform in ISO 27001, 27017 and 27018 and SOC 1, 2 and 3 scope per the 1 October services-in-scope check for vertex-ai-tuning, not re-read on 6 October (20).\n\n### Agent ergonomics: Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +35\n\n- 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.\n- Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) (97): Model reading of the checklist (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). Function calling with `FunctionCallingConfig` mode ANY and `allowedFunctionNames` to force a named tool (20). Schema-guaranteed JSON output (15). Implicit and explicit context caching, cached input at 0.1x, $0.075 per million on 3.8 Flash through 31 December (15). 1,048,576-token context on 3.8 Flash, a unified 1,048,576-token input and output limit on Gemini 4 Argon, and 1,000,000 on Claude Opus 5.5 (15). Flex/Batch at half price on Gemini (10). Gen AI SDKs for Python and JavaScript among others, and the OpenAI libraries work with Google Cloud auth (10). 429 handling documented per quota framework, with standard Google status codes elsewhere (12 of 15).\n\n### Transparency \u0026 trust: Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +26\n\n- 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.\n- Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) (90): Closed service under the Google Cloud terms, with the Gen AI SDKs under Apache-2.0 and a public discovery document (18, as for Bedrock's open service models). The zero data retention and abuse monitoring pages agree with the Cloud terms and give periods for each case, 24 hours in memory, up to 90 days for flagged prompts, 30 days for Advanced AI models, 3 days for Search grounding logs and 30 days for Maps grounding, and say which can't be switched off (27 of 30). A dated model versions table with release and retirement dates and a stated 12-month or 45-day policy, but on 6 November it still listed Gemini 2.5 Pro, Flash and Flash-Lite as available with a 20 October 2026 retirement date and left them out of the retired table (18 of 20, down from 20). The Cloud subprocessor list with locations, per the 1 October vertex-ai-tuning check, regional and multi-region endpoints, and per-model ML processing locations on the partner model cards (20).\n\n### Schema \u0026 documentation: Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +24\n\n- 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.\n- Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) (94): Model reading. Keyless discovery document for the Agent Platform API v1, revision 20260930, with 1,128 methods and 1,493 schemas (25). No llms.txt, but every docs page answers as Markdown at `.md.txt`, counted as for vertex-ai-tuning (10). Model cards give limits, capabilities and retirement dates, and the 3.8 Flash card says when to use 3.7 Flash instead, but the docs mix the Vertex AI and Agent Platform names, and the OpenAI page tells new users to call the Gemini Developer API instead (16 of 20). Structured output with `response_schema` and `response_mime_type: application/json` always follows the schema per the docs, and complex schemas fail with a 400 (15). Examples on every page and a 429 guide, but we found no full error code list for generateContent (13 of 15). Versioned v1 and v1beta1 APIs and release notes with entries on most working days, newest 5 November 2026 (15).\n\n### Payments \u0026 pricing: Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +20\n\n- 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.\n- Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) (40): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-token prices per model and option published without a login (20). Express mode gives new Google Cloud users 90 days free within quotas with no billing details, though it's in Preview and needs a @gmail.com account (20). A person signs up in the console to get the express key (0).\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Inkling 2 Small | Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 30 | 99 | Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +69 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 94 | Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +24 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 62 | 97 | Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +35 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 97 | Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +40 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 40 | Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +20 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 91 | Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +16 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 64 | 90 | Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +26 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **52.1 · D** | **88.7 · AA** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Inkling 2 Small | Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | Model API | Model API |\n| Vendor | Thinking Machines Lab | Google Cloud |\n| Hosted endpoint | `https://tinker.thinkingmachines.dev/services/tinker-prod/oai/api/v1` | `https://aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1` |\n| Transports |  | HTTP |\n| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |\n| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| 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 Google Cloud Platform terms. Partner models carry their providers' terms. The Google Gen AI SDKs are Apache-2.0 |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | yes | no |\n| Last release | 2026-11-05 | 2026-11-05 |\n| Terms last updated | not read yet | 2026-09-02 |\n| Privacy policy last updated | not read yet | 2026-10-01 |\n| Customer content may train models | not read yet | yes |\n| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |\n| Popularity | none | 20.9M PyPI/wk |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**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.\n\n**Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform).** Gemini, Claude and open models through one Google Cloud API with IAM, regional endpoints, schema-guaranteed JSON and a 99.5 per cent SLA, and no Vertex incident on the Cloud status page in the 90 days to 6 November 2026. Gemini 4 Argon and 3.8 Flash have 12-month availability, but short-term Flash models get a 95 per cent SLA.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### Inkling 2 Small\n\n1. Call https://tinker.thinkingmachines.dev/services/tinker-prod/oai/api/v1 with an OpenAI client and TINKER_API_KEY, using /chat/completions\n2. 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\n3. 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\n4. Keep images between 40 and 4096 px a side, per the model card\n5. Validate JSON yourself, since structured output and the tool-call format aren't documented\n6. Plan for a move to open weights. When they publish, the open-weights listing will carry sizes and runtimes\n\n### Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)\n\n1. Call the `global` location on aiplatform.googleapis.com unless data residency requires a Region. The 429 guide says it spreads load and reduces errors\n2. Back off exponentially on 429 `Resource exhausted`. On Standard PayGo it means shared capacity is busy, not a fixed quota\n3. Send `response_schema` with `response_mime_type: application/json`. JSON mode alone doesn't guarantee valid output\n4. Set `store` to false on Interactions API calls. It defaults to true and keeps prompts and responses\n5. Pin `gemini-4-argon` or `gemini-3.8-flash`, both in the 12-month tier, rather than 3.7 or 3.6 Flash, which retire on 28 January 2027 and 19 November 2026\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Inkling 2 Small or Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)?\n\nVertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) scores 88.7 (AA) on agent readiness against Inkling 2 Small's 52.1 (D), and leads in every scored category.\n\n### Do Inkling 2 Small and Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) need an API key?\n\nInkling 2 Small needs an API key. Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.\n\n### Can an agent call Inkling 2 Small and Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) without installing anything?\n\nYes. Inkling 2 Small has a hosted endpoint at https://tinker.thinkingmachines.dev/services/tinker-prod/oai/api/v1 and Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) at https://aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1.\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-vertex-ai.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-vertex-ai.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"inkling-2-small\", \"b\": \"vertex-ai\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare inkling-2-small vertex-ai`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/inkling-2-small.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vertex-ai.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Inkling 2 Small or Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)\n\n- [Amazon Bedrock vs Inkling 2 Small](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-bedrock-vs-inkling-2-small.md)\n- [Amazon Bedrock vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-bedrock-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Claude API vs Inkling 2 Small](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-inkling-2-small.md)\n- [Claude API vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Antseed vs Inkling 2 Small](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-inkling-2-small.md)\n- [Antseed vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models vs Inkling 2 Small](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-openai-vs-inkling-2-small.md)\n- [Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-openai-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [BlockRun.AI vs Inkling 2 Small](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-inkling-2-small.md)\n- [BlockRun.AI vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Cerebras Inference vs Inkling 2 Small](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebras-inference-vs-inkling-2-small.md)\n- [Cerebras Inference vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebras-inference-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs Inkling 2 Small](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-inkling-2-small.md)\n- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Inkling 2 Small](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-inkling-2-small.md)\n- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Inkling 2 Small](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-inkling-2-small.md)\n- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [DeepInfra vs Inkling 2 Small](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-inkling-2-small.md)\n- [DeepInfra vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [DeepSeek API vs Inkling 2 Small](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-inkling-2-small.md)\n- [DeepSeek API vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Eden AI vs Inkling 2 Small](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/eden-ai-vs-inkling-2-small.md)\n- [Eden AI vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/eden-ai-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Glimpse vs Inkling 2 Small](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-inkling-2-small.md)\n- [Glimpse vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Fireworks AI Inference vs Inkling 2 Small](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fireworks-inference-vs-inkling-2-small.md)\n- [Fireworks AI Inference vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fireworks-inference-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Gemini Developer API vs Inkling 2 Small](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-api-vs-inkling-2-small.md)\n- [Gemini Developer API vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-api-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [GroqCloud vs Inkling 2 Small](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-inkling-2-small.md)\n- [GroqCloud vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Hugging Face Inference Providers vs Inkling 2 Small](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hugging-face-inference-providers-vs-inkling-2-small.md)\n- [Hugging Face Inference Providers vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hugging-face-inference-providers-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Inkling 2 Small vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-jais-3.md)\n- 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Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-prism-inference.md)\n- [Inkling 2 Small vs Router.com (Ramp Router)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-ramp-router.md)\n- [Inkling 2 Small vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-reflection-beam.md)\n- [Inkling 2 Small vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-routerplus.md)\n- [Inkling 2 Small vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-sambanova.md)\n- [Inkling 2 Small vs SiliconFlow](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-siliconflow.md)\n- [Inkling 2 Small vs Simplismart](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-simplismart.md)\n- [Inkling 2 Small vs StepFun API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-stepfun-api.md)\n- [Inkling 2 Small vs SWE-2 Flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-swe-2-flash.md)\n- [Inkling 2 Small vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-tencent-tokenhub.md)\n- [Inkling 2 Small vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-together-inference.md)\n- [Inkling 2 Small vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)\n- [Inkling 2 Small vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [Jais 3 vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Meta Model API vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meta-model-api-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [MiniMax API vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-api-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Mistral AI API vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-api-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Muse Spark Open vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-spark-open-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Novita AI vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novita-ai-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [OpenAI API vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-api-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [OpenRouter vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Prism Inference vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prism-inference-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Router.com (Ramp Router) vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ramp-router-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Beam 1.0 vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [RouterPlus vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/routerplus-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [SambaCloud vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [SiliconFlow vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/siliconflow-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Simplismart vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/simplismart-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [StepFun API vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/stepfun-api-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [SWE-2 Flash vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/swe-2-flash-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Tencent Cloud TokenHub vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tencent-tokenhub-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Together AI Inference vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/together-inference-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Vercel AI Gateway vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/vercel-ai-gateway-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n- [Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/vertex-ai-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nemotron-3-5-super-vl-vs-vertex-ai.md)\n",
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