# Inkling 2 Small vs ZAYA1-8B (slim)

> ZAYA1-8B scores 61 (C) to Inkling 2 Small's 58.8 (C) for open-weight models you run yourself. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-zaya1-8b.md (~9,400 tokens) · this version ~680 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-zaya1-8b.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-zaya1-8b
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-12
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ZAYA1-8B scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against Inkling 2 Small's 58.8 (C), and leads in 1 of 4 scored categories. Inkling 2 Small leads on risk, agent interface and documentation and upkeep. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- Inkling 2 Small: C 58.8, rank #102 of 161 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/inkling-2-small.min.md
- ZAYA1-8B: C 61, rank #85 of 161 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zaya1-8b.min.md
- Inkling 2 Small, good for Teams with 512 GB or more of datacentre GPU memory who want Thinking Machines' newest open multimodal agent model and can run a runtime's pre-release image. Ahead on Risk, 65 against 55; Agent interface, 85 against 60; Documentation and upkeep, 67 against 50.
- ZAYA1-8B, good for People who want a small, fast reasoning model for maths and code and can live without tool calling Ahead on Reach, 80 against 40.

| Category | Inkling 2 Small | ZAYA1-8B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 40 | 80 |
| Risk (20%) | 65 | 55 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 85 | 60 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 67 | 50 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Inkling 2 Small | ZAYA1-8B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Thinking Machines Lab | Zyphra |
| Last release | 2026-11-12 | 2026-07-02 |

Why the edge:
- Reach, ZAYA1-8B +40: Inkling 2 Small 40 (Memory 0 of 30, the smallest build is Thinking Machines' NVFP4 checkpoint at 393.5 GB, about 472 GB with a fifth added, above the 256 GB line.); ZAYA1-8B 80 (Memory 30, the smallest build from Zyphra is the MXFP4-Experts repository, 5.85 GB, and 5.85 GB × 1.2 = 7.0 GB, within 16 GB.)
- Agent interface, Inkling 2 Small +25: Inkling 2 Small 85 (Chat template 20, a Jinja file in the repository.); ZAYA1-8B 60 (Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository (10,700 characters).)
- Documentation and upkeep, Inkling 2 Small +17: Inkling 2 Small 67 (Model card 17 of 20, everything but a dated knowledge cut-off.); ZAYA1-8B 50 (Model card 5, Intended use and the parameter counts are on the card.)
- Risk, Inkling 2 Small +10: Inkling 2 Small 65 (File safety 25, safetensors only and no repository code to run.); ZAYA1-8B 55 (File safety 25, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files and no Python in the repository.)