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Inkling-Small vs LongCat-2.5

LongCat-2.5 leads the LLM Stats Score 49.7 to 37.7. Inkling-Small and LongCat-2.5 cost the same.

Thinking Machines Lab · Meituan · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

LongCat-2.5 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 49.7 to 37.7, ranking #22 overall.

In the 4 individual benchmarks reported for both models, LongCat-2.5 wins 4; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

LongCat-2.5 also accepts a larger context window (1,048,576 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Inkling-Small

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Choose LongCat-2.5

  • overall performance matters — it scores 49.7 and ranks #22 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 4 of 4 exact shared results
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 1,048,576 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Nov 2026

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Inkling-Small
Thinking Machines Lab
LongCat-2.5
Meituan
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
37.7
#94
49.7
#22
Reasoning
36.9
#94
48.0
#23
Coding
28.3
#81
38.0
#29
Agents
21.8
#88
35.8
#24
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
0 of 4
4 of 4
Input price
$0.30 / M
$0.30 / M
Output price
$1.20 / M
$1.20 / M
Context window
256,000
1,048,576

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

4 shared
Index
Inkling-Small
LongCat-2.5
Math
32.5#64
37.1#38
Vision
20.1#93
32.4#29
Tool use
18.5#89
29.9#18
Multimodal
16.9#101
34.8#15
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

24 reported for Inkling-Small · 23 for LongCat-2.5

4 shared

Inkling-Small outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while LongCat-2.5 is better at 4 benchmarks (BrowseComp, CharXiv-R, MCP Atlas, Terminal-Bench 2.1).

LongCat-2.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Nov 10 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

For input processing, Inkling-Small ($0.30/1M tokens) costs the same as LongCat-2.5 ($0.30/1M tokens).

For output processing, Inkling-Small ($1.20/1M tokens) costs the same as LongCat-2.5 ($1.20/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Inkling-Small and LongCat-2.5 cost the same.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Tue Nov 10 2026 • llm-stats.com
Thinking Machines Lab
Inkling-Small
Input tokens$0.30
Output tokens$1.20
Best providerUnknown Organization
Meituan
LongCat-2.5
Input tokens$0.30
Output tokens$1.20
Best providerMeituan
Notice missing or incorrect data?

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

1324.0B diff

LongCat-2.5 has 1324.0B more parameters than Inkling-Small, making it 479.7% larger.

Thinking Machines Lab
Inkling-Small
276.0Bparameters
Meituan
LongCat-2.5
1.6Tparameters
276.0B
Inkling-Small
1600.0B
LongCat-2.5

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

LongCat-2.5 accepts 1,048,576 input tokens compared to Inkling-Small's 256,000 tokens. Inkling-Small can generate longer responses up to 256,000 tokens, while LongCat-2.5 is limited to 131,072 tokens.

Thinking Machines Lab
Inkling-Small
Input256,000 tokens
Output256,000 tokens
Meituan
LongCat-2.5
Input1,048,576 tokens
Output131,072 tokens
Tue Nov 10 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both Inkling-Small and LongCat-2.5 support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

Inkling-Small

Text
Images
Audio
Video

LongCat-2.5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Inkling-Small was released on 2026-07-30, while LongCat-2.5 was released on 2026-11-01.

LongCat-2.5 is 3 months newer than Inkling-Small.

Inkling-Small

Jul 30, 2026

3 months ago

LongCat-2.5

Nov 1, 2026

1 weeks ago

3mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Provider Availability

Inkling-Small is available from Thinking Machines Lab, DeepInfra. LongCat-2.5 is available from Meituan.

Inkling-Small

thinking-machines logo
Unknown Organization
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M
deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.45/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M

LongCat-2.5

meituan logo
Meituan
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Inkling-Small and LongCat-2.5 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Inkling-Small
✓ Preferred
LongCat-2.5
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Inkling-Small vs LongCat-2.5.

Which is better, Inkling-Small or LongCat-2.5?

LongCat-2.5 leads the LLM Stats Score 49.7 to 37.7. Inkling-Small is made by Thinking Machines Lab and LongCat-2.5 is made by Meituan. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Inkling-Small compare to LongCat-2.5 in benchmarks?

Inkling-Small scores AIME 2026: 95.5%, VoiceBench Avg: 90.1%, GPQA: 89.5%, Global-MMLU-Lite: 86.7%, ARC-AGI: 84.0%. LongCat-2.5 scores MathVision: 96.5%, BrowseComp: 91.9%, CharXiv-R: 90.2%, Terminal-Bench 2.1: 88.4%, Video-MME: 85.2%.

Is Inkling-Small cheaper than LongCat-2.5?

Both models cost $0.30 per million input tokens.

What are the context window sizes for Inkling-Small and LongCat-2.5?

Inkling-Small supports 256K tokens and LongCat-2.5 supports 1.0M tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Inkling-Small and LongCat-2.5?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (37.7 vs 49.7), context window (256K vs 1.0M), licensing (Apache 2.0 vs Unknown). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Inkling-Small and LongCat-2.5?

Inkling-Small is developed by Thinking Machines Lab and LongCat-2.5 is developed by Meituan.

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