Inkling-Small vs LongCat-Flash-Thinking

    Comparison

    As of August 20, 2026, Inkling-Small and LongCat-Flash-Thinking have the same blended API cost at $1.50 per 1 million input plus 1 million output tokens. Inkling-Small is $0.30 / $1.20 per million tokens versus LongCat-Flash-Thinking at $0.30 / $1.20. Sources: https://thinkingmachines.ai and https://anotherwrapper.com/tools/llm-pricing

    Sources: Thinking Machines Lab pricing (https://thinkingmachines.ai); AnotherWrapper LLM pricing (https://anotherwrapper.com/tools/llm-pricing)

    Inkling-Small

    Thinking Machines

    $1.50blended / 1M

    Input

    $0.30

    Output

    $1.20

    256K ctx|Open Source
    vs

    LongCat-Flash-Thinking

    Meituan

    $1.50blended / 1M

    Input

    $0.30

    Output

    $1.20

    128K ctx|Open Source

    Inkling-Small vs LongCat-Flash-Thinking comparison

    Token pricing, specs, and benchmarks side by side

    Metric
    Inkling-Small
    LongCat-Flash-Thinking
    Provider
    Provider
    Thinking Machines
    Meituan
    License
    Open Source
    Open Source
    Release Date
    2026-07-30
    2025-09-22
    Pricing (per 1M tokens)
    Input Price0%
    $0.30
    $0.30
    Output Price0%
    $1.20
    $1.20
    Blended (1M + 1M)
    $1.50
    $1.50
    Model Details
    Context Window
    256K
    128K
    Max Output Tokens
    256K
    128K
    Knowledge Cutoff
    N/A
    N/A
    Throughput
    N/A
    100 tok/s
    Benchmarks
    31.6%
    89.5%
    81.5%
    88.5%
    85.9%
    79.4%
    48.7%
    77.4%
    19.5%
    82.2%
    40.1%
    54.4%
    79.6%
    74%
    77.4%
    90%
    90.6%
    93.3%
    99.2%
    30.6%
    95.5%
    84%
    50.3%
    74.4%
    69.6%
    8.3%
    68.8%
    31.8%
    42.3%
    37.9%
    84.1%
    77%
    85.6%
    82.6%
    89.3%
    32.7%
    33.6%
    15.5%
    75.5%
    95.5%
    Benchmark Wins
    Inkling-Small 5|1 LongCat-Flash-Thinking

    Verdict

    Inkling-Small vs LongCat-Flash-Thinking: the bottom line

    Inkling-Small offers both lower pricing and stronger benchmark performance across the board, making it the clear value leader in this comparison.

    Inkling-Small vs LongCat-Flash-Thinking FAQ

    Which is cheaper, Inkling-Small or LongCat-Flash-Thinking?

    As of August 20, 2026, Inkling-Small is 0% cheaper on blended LLM API pricing. Inkling-Small costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens ($1.50 blended 1M-in + 1M-out). LongCat-Flash-Thinking costs $0.30 / $1.20 per million tokens ($1.50 blended). Sources: https://thinkingmachines.ai and https://anotherwrapper.com/tools/llm-pricing. The cheapest LLM for your app still depends on how many output tokens you generate.

    How much does Inkling-Small vs LongCat-Flash-Thinking cost per million tokens?

    Inkling-Small Thinking Machines Lab API pricing is $0.30 input and $1.20 output per million tokens via Thinking Machines Lab. LongCat-Flash-Thinking Meituan API pricing is $0.30 input and $1.20 output per million tokens via Meituan. Use those four numbers, not ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro subscription prices, when you are comparing APIs.

    Which is better for coding, Inkling-Small or LongCat-Flash-Thinking?

    Inkling-Small leads on SWE-bench Verified: Inkling-Small at 80.2% vs LongCat-Flash-Thinking at 59.4%. SWE-bench measures real GitHub fixes; LiveCodeBench measures contest programming.

    What is the context window for Inkling-Small vs LongCat-Flash-Thinking?

    Inkling-Small supports a 256K token context window, while LongCat-Flash-Thinking supports 128K tokens. Inkling-Small offers a larger context window. Filling a larger window bills more input tokens, so the cheaper-per-million model can still cost more on long documents.

    Which model performs better on benchmarks, Inkling-Small or LongCat-Flash-Thinking?

    Inkling-Small leads on 5 of 6 shared benchmarks versus LongCat-Flash-Thinking's 1 wins. Check the comparison table for GPQA Diamond, SWE-bench, MMLU, HLE, and the other evals we track. Token price and benchmark score together are the usual LLM comparison, not either number alone.

    Is Inkling-Small or LongCat-Flash-Thinking better for production use?

    Both Inkling-Small and LongCat-Flash-Thinking are production API models. For cost-sensitive production traffic, Inkling-Small has better economics on the blended 1M-in + 1M-out scale. For maximum capability, weight the benchmark table for your domain. Many production stacks route cheap models for drafts and a frontier model for the hard turn, which is usually cheaper than sending everything to the expensive API.

    Can I switch between Inkling-Small and LongCat-Flash-Thinking in my app?

    Yes. Call Inkling-Small through Thinking Machines Lab and LongCat-Flash-Thinking through Meituan with separate API keys, or through a gateway that already wraps both. Keep prompts in tokens, not characters, when you estimate the invoice. AnotherWrapper templates can swap providers without rewriting auth and billing.

    How accurate is this Inkling-Small vs LongCat-Flash-Thinking pricing data?

    List rates are the latest published Thinking Machines Lab API pricing and Meituan API pricing, quoted per million tokens. Official rate sheets: https://thinkingmachines.ai and https://anotherwrapper.com/tools/llm-pricing. Prompt caching, batch APIs, and committed-use discounts can change the invoice. Benchmark scores are from official publications and independent evals, updated as new numbers land.

    What is the output token limit for Inkling-Small and LongCat-Flash-Thinking?

    Inkling-Small supports up to 256K output tokens per request, while LongCat-Flash-Thinking supports up to 128K output tokens. Output tokens are usually the expensive half of API pricing, so a higher max output cap is a capability, not a discount.

    Which model has better throughput, Inkling-Small or LongCat-Flash-Thinking?

    LongCat-Flash-Thinking has a measured throughput of approximately 100 tokens/second. Throughput data for Inkling-Small is not yet available. Throughput (tokens per second) and time-to-first-token are why two models with the same per-million-token price can still feel different in chat and agents.

    How do I switch the models in this Inkling-Small vs LongCat-Flash-Thinking comparison?

    Use the model pickers at the top of this LLM comparison. Search any model in the index and the URL updates. Open Inkling-Small or LongCat-Flash-Thinking from the sidebar for the single-model API pricing page, or go back to the LLM pricing table to sort by cheapest blended cost.

    Inkling-Small vs LongCat-Flash-Thinking pricing

    This comparison covers API pricing, context window, throughput, and benchmark scores. Inkling-Small costs $0.30/M input and $1.20/M output via Thinking Machines Lab. LongCat-Flash-Thinking costs $0.30/M input and $1.20/M output.

    Rank both on the LLM leaderboard, SWE-bench, and Humanity's Last Exam.

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