Thinking Machines: Models Intelligence, Performance & Price
This analysis is intended to support you in choosing the best model provided by Thinking Machines for your use-case.
Most Intelligent
Inkling SmallInkling (xhigh)Intelligence Index
Total 2 models
Fastest
Inkling SmallInkling (xhigh)Output speed
Total 2 models
Lowest Price
Inkling SmallInkling (xhigh)Blended price (per 1M tokens)
Total 2 models
Thinking Machines offers 2 models, each with different intelligence, performance, and pricing characteristics. Below is a comparison of the key metrics across models.
- For intelligence, the top models on Thinking Machines are Inkling Small (26) and Inkling (xhigh) (25).
- For output speed, the fastest models are Inkling Small (223 t/s) and Inkling (xhigh) (195 t/s).
- For latency, Inkling Small (10.56s) and Inkling (xhigh) (12.02s) offer the lowest time to first answer token.
- For pricing, Inkling Small ($0.22) and Inkling (xhigh) ($0.72) offer the lowest blended prices per 1M tokens.
- For context window size, Inkling (xhigh) (262k) and Inkling Small (256k) support the largest context windows on Thinking Machines.
- Inkling Small stands out as the overall leader on Thinking Machines, ranking first across intelligence, speed, and pricing.
Intelligence Evaluations
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index
Evaluations
Agentic knowledge work, Elo
Knowledge
1 - hallucination rate
Agentic SaaS workflows
Agentic real-world work tasks, Elo
Reasoning & knowledge
Professional document reasoning, All-pass
Agentic coding & terminal use
Long context reasoning
Coding
Physics reasoning
Agentic scientific research workflows in a terminal
Agentic software engineering in open-source repositories
Quantitative analysis on spreadsheets & documents
Legal agentic work, Hallucination-Gated All-Pass Rate
Agentic business operations
Agentic interactive 3D experiences, Elo
Kubernetes incident root-cause analysis
Medical long context reasoning
Visual reasoning
Rich, varied, well-crafted language
Well-structured, scannable, answer-first
Truthful, acknowledges uncertainty, non-sycophantic
Use of filler and generic language
Intelligence Index vs. Price
Context Window
Context Window
Pricing
Intelligence Index vs. Price
Performance Summary
Output Speed vs. Price
Speed
Measured by Output Speed (tokens per second)
Output Speed
Latency
Measured by Time (seconds) to First Token
Latency: Time To First Answer Token
Cache Behaviour
Cache Hit Rate
Cost per Task vs. Cache Hit Rate
End-to-End Response Time
Seconds to output 500 tokens, calculated based on time to first token, 'thinking' time for reasoning models, and output speed
End-to-End Response Time vs. Price
Key definitions
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Thinking Machines
Thinking Machines offers 2 models that we track: Inkling Small and Inkling (xhigh).
The most intelligent model available on Thinking Machines is Inkling Small with an Intelligence Index score of 26.
The fastest model on Thinking Machines by output speed is Inkling Small at 222.9 tokens per second.
The model with the lowest time to first answer token on Thinking Machines is Inkling Small at 10.56s. Lower latency means faster initial response time.
The most affordable model on Thinking Machines by blended price is Inkling Small at $0.22 per 1M tokens (7:2:1 cache hit/input/output ratio).
Prices on Thinking Machines vary up to 3x across models, from $0.22 per 1M tokens for Inkling Small to $0.72 per 1M tokens for Inkling (xhigh).
Yes, Thinking Machines offers an OpenAI-compatible API, making it easy to switch from OpenAI or use existing OpenAI SDK integrations.
Yes, all 2 models on Thinking Machines support JSON mode for structured output.
Yes, all 2 models on Thinking Machines support function calling (tool use).
Yes, Thinking Machines offers 2 reasoning models: Inkling Small and Inkling (xhigh). Reasoning models use extended thinking to work through complex problems before providing an answer.
Yes, all 2 models on Thinking Machines are open weight models.
Yes, provider performance can vary over time due to infrastructure changes, load balancing, and updates. We continuously benchmark all providers and display historical performance trends in the "Over Time" charts.
When choosing a model on Thinking Machines, consider: intelligence (for quality-sensitive tasks), output speed (for throughput-intensive tasks), latency (for interactive applications requiring quick first responses), pricing (for cost-sensitive workloads), and features like context window size, JSON mode, or function calling support.