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Van Data Team

text model comparison

Inkling 2 Small vs LongCat-2.5

Inkling 2 Small and LongCat-2.5 are both current text models, from Thinking Machines Lab and Meituan. Both cost $0.30 per 1M input tokens. LongCat-2.5 has the larger context window, 1,048,576 vs 262,144 tokens.

Longer context window
LongCat-2.51.05M tokens against 262K tokens
Newer release
Inkling 2 SmallNov 5, 2026 against Nov 2, 2026

Data verified November 6, 2026 · Dataset 2026-11-06

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Side by side

Inkling 2 Small and LongCat-2.5, line by line

Prices in effect today, compared at the same tier wherever both list one. The better value in each row is highlighted.

FactInkling 2 SmallLongCat-2.5
Price
Price per 1M input tokens$0.30$0.30
Price per 1M output tokens$1 (better)$1.20
Specs
ProviderThinking Machines LabMeituan
Release dateNovember 5, 2026November 2, 2026
AccessAPI onlyAPI only
Context window262,144 tokens1,048,576 tokens
Max outputNot reported262,144 tokens
Inputtext, imagetext, image, video
Outputtexttext

Charts

Against every current text model

Where Inkling 2 Small and LongCat-2.5 land among the current models of their task, on every independent benchmark, on price and on context.

Where each stands

No independent benchmark has scored either model yet, so the tiles rank their prices among the current models of their task.

Inkling 2 Small and LongCat-2.5 among the current text models, one row per benchmark, price and context window.

Price and context

Price per 1M input tokens

Inkling 2 Small:#11of 58

$0.30 · cheaper than 75%

LongCat-2.5:#11of 58

$0.30 · cheaper than 75%

Price per 1M output tokens

Inkling 2 Small:#10of 58

$1 · cheaper than 84%

LongCat-2.5:#11of 58

$1.20 · cheaper than 77%

Context window

Inkling 2 Small:#57of 67

262K tokens · longer than 12%

LongCat-2.5:#12of 67

1.05M tokens · longer than 67%

Cost

What each costs

Example workloads at each provider's listed rates, then every other rate either one lists. The cheaper figure in each row is highlighted.

The same work, priced

For 10M input and 2M output tokens, LongCat-2.5 costs 1.1 times as much as Inkling 2 Small, at each provider's listed rates.

What Inkling 2 Small and LongCat-2.5 cost for the same work, at the rates each provider lists.

  • 10M input and 2M output tokens

    LongCat-2.5 costs 1.1× as much

    Inkling 2 Small
    $5
    LongCat-2.5
    $5.40

  • The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached

    LongCat-2.5 costs 1.1× as much

    Inkling 2 Small
    $2.57
    LongCat-2.5
    $2.75
Workload or rateInkling 2 SmallLongCat-2.5
Example workloads
10M input and 2M output tokens$5 (better)$5.40
The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached$2.57 (better)$2.75
Other listed rates
1M input tokens, cached$0.03$0.006 (better)

Your own bill will differ. These figures use list prices and example workloads. The AI Model Cost Audit reviews your real usage, shortlists models that score as well for each task for less, and estimates the savings.

Launch price $100, regular price $150

Book the cost audit

Verdict

When to choose each

Inkling 2 Small

Where it leads

  • Lower price per 1M output tokens, $1 vs $1.20

Best for

  • Agentic coding and office, finance and legal work at a low per-token price
  • Teams that want to post-train their own variant on Tinker

Watch out for

  • Closed weights for now: Thinking Machines says it will publish the full weights under Apache 2.0 the week after launch, once external safety testing ends; until then Tinker is the only way to use it
  • Tinker serves it with a 64K or 256K context, although the model card lists up to 1M tokens
  • In its lab's own table DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash scores higher on DeepSWE v1.1 (77.0% against 72.1%) and Claude Haiku 5.5 on Vibe Code Bench (90.4% against 81.6%); Thinking Machines also says it is less tuned for chat, and no independent benchmark score is recorded here yet
Full Inkling 2 Small profile

LongCat-2.5

Where it leads

  • Larger context window 1,048,576 vs 262,144 tokens
  • Accepts video input
  • Cheaper cached input, $0.006 vs $0.03 per 1M tokens

Best for

  • Coding agents working through whole projects in Claude Code, Codex or similar harnesses
  • Visual coding and design work that mixes screenshots or screen recordings with code

Watch out for

  • The recorded rates are a limited-time discount: Meituan publishes no list price and no end date
  • API only: no weights had been published when this record was made
  • Released on 2 November 2026, so no independent benchmark score is recorded here yet
Full LongCat-2.5 profile

From benchmark to production

Building on Inkling 2 Small or LongCat-2.5?

Public scores rarely hold on your own data. We test both models on your real tasks, then build the agent or pipeline around the one that wins.

AI Model Cost AuditLaunch price $100, regular price $150What the audit includes

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FAQ

Inkling 2 Small vs LongCat-2.5 FAQ

Which is cheaper, Inkling 2 Small or LongCat-2.5?

Both cost $0.30 per 1M input tokens. For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Inkling 2 Small costs $5 and LongCat-2.5 $5.40 at standard rates.

Which is cheaper with prompt caching, Inkling 2 Small or LongCat-2.5?

Inkling 2 Small charges $0.03 per 1M cached input tokens, 90% below its standard input rate, and LongCat-2.5 $0.006, 98% below. With 9M of 10M input tokens cached and 2M output tokens, Inkling 2 Small costs $2.57 and LongCat-2.5 $2.75.

Which has the larger context window, Inkling 2 Small or LongCat-2.5?

LongCat-2.5 has the larger context window, 1,048,576 vs 262,144 tokens.

How do Inkling 2 Small and LongCat-2.5 differ in features?

Inkling 2 Small takes text and image input; LongCat-2.5 takes text, image and video.

Further reading

More on Inkling 2 Small and LongCat-2.5

Articles on Inkling 2 Small and LongCat-2.5

Related comparisons

Production evaluation

Choosing between Inkling 2 Small and LongCat-2.5?

Public benchmarks narrow the shortlist. We run both on your own tasks, data and cost limits, then build the routing and review controls to run the winner in production.

  • A head-to-head evaluation on your real workload
  • Routing between models by cost and difficulty
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