# Inkling-Small vs LFM3-1.7B (slim)

> Inkling-Small scores 67 (B) to LFM3-1.7B's 61 (C) for open-weight models you run yourself. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-10
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Inkling-Small scores 67 (B) on agent readiness against LFM3-1.7B's 61 (C), and leads in 2 of 4 scored categories. LFM3-1.7B leads on reach and agent interface. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- Inkling-Small: B 67, rank #13 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/inkling-small.min.md
- LFM3-1.7B: C 61, rank #69 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lfm3-1-7b.min.md
- Inkling-Small, good for Teams with 256 GB or more of datacentre GPU memory who want an open multimodal agent model with audio input and adjustable thinking. Ahead on Risk, 70 against 40; Documentation and upkeep, 87 against 67.
- LFM3-1.7B, good for Agents on a laptop, phone or small server that need tool calling and a long context from a model under 2 GB at 4 bits Ahead on Reach, 85 against 55; Agent interface, 100 against 85.

| Category | Inkling-Small | LFM3-1.7B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 55 | 85 |
| Risk (20%) | 70 | 40 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 85 | 100 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 87 | 67 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Inkling-Small | LFM3-1.7B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Thinking Machines Lab | Liquid AI |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | LFM Open License v1.0 (free commercial use below $10M annual revenue) |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-07-31 | 2026-11-09 |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Reach, LFM3-1.7B +30: Inkling-Small 55 (Memory 5 of 30, the smallest 4-bit build is Thinking Machines' NVFP4 at 170.8 GB, about 205 GB with a fifth added, so it needs 256 GB.); LFM3-1.7B 85 (Memory 30, Liquid's Q4_K_M GGUF is 1.10 GB, and 1.10 GB × 1.2 = 1.3 GB, which fits 8 GB, well inside the 16 GB line.)
- Risk, Inkling-Small +30: Inkling-Small 70 (File safety 25, safetensors only and no repository code to run.); LFM3-1.7B 40 (File safety 15, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files (25).)
- Documentation and upkeep, Inkling-Small +20: Inkling-Small 87 (Model card 17 of 20, everything but a dated knowledge cut-off, counting Thinking Machines' own model card page.); LFM3-1.7B 67 (Model card 17, Intended use (local agents, tool calling, structured outputs, fine-tuning), a limitation (not recommended for agentic coding or complex multi-ste…)
- Agent interface, LFM3-1.7B +15: Inkling-Small 85 (Chat template 20, a Jinja file in the repository.); LFM3-1.7B 100 (Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository (12,129 characters), with roles, tools, deferred tools, tool results and the thinking switch.)