Inkling 2 Small
Thinking Machines Lab, an AI research company, has released a free reasoning model that can read text and images, aimed at people trying out AI tools.
Not confirmed yet. The maker hasn't announced this. trckr spotted it via OpenRouter, which makes it an Early signal: A hint that a model is coming before it's announced: a name spotted in a lab's systems, an anonymous test model, or code that adds support for it. Usually right, sometimes not.: usually right, but details may change or turn out to be wrong.
Key facts
- Released
- Nov 9, 2026
- What it does
- Text and chat: Writes, answers questions and holds a conversation.
Can I use it?
Not officially released yet. Here's what's known so far; trckr updates this page when it launches.
In an app
No app mentioned so far.
For developers
Developers can use it now through an API: How developers plug a model into their own apps and pay per use. A model that's "in the API" can be used by programmers, even if it isn't in a chat app yet..
Download
Not downloadable: it runs on the maker's own servers.
How it scores
From independent testers, never the lab's own claims.
- Building apps, by people's votes#18 of 85
- Claude Opus 5.51,818
- 2Claude Sonnet 5.51,773
- 17Muse Wonder1,650
- 18Inkling 2 Small1,649
- 19Grok 4.71,640
Source: LMArena · LMArena WebDev
Compare Inkling 2 Small with
The details
Thinking Machines Lab's Inkling 2 Small is a Reasoning model: A model that thinks step by step before answering. Slower, but much better at maths, code and tricky questions. with 594B total and 17B Active parameters: In a mixture-of-experts model, the part that actually works on each word. A model with 74B parameters and 9B active needs the memory of a 74B model but runs about as fast as a 9B one. that reads text and images, with a Context window: How much a model can keep in mind at once: your question, any files you share and its own replies. Measured in tokens; 1,000 tokens is about 750 words. of about 1 million. It is free on OpenRouter: A service that gives developers one place to use hundreds of models from many labs. New models often appear there early, sometimes anonymously. for now.
Model ID: The exact name developers type to use a model, like gpt-5-mini. New IDs often show up in a lab's systems before the official announcement, which is how trckr spots many releases early.
thinkingmachines/inkling-2-small:freeTimeline
/OpenRouterFirst signal
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