Inkling Small on OpenRouter
OpenRouter Free API tier
The catch: Only 50 requests a day until you buy 10 credits, and many free endpoints keep or train on prompts: OpenRouter marks the NVIDIA, Poolside, Liquid, Thinking Machines and Inception free endpoints 'Trains', and Google AI Studio (55 days) and Cohere (30 days) as retaining prompts.
| Access | Free API tier |
|---|---|
| Free limits | Free variant: 20 requests per minute and 50 requests per day, or 1,000 per day once you have bought at least 10 credits. Thinking Machines serves it; OpenRouter marks this endpoint 'Privacy: Trains'. OpenRouter says the free endpoint 'is only available for use with agentic harnesses', and Thinking Machines' Free Research API Tier terms let it log prompts and outputs to improve its models. |
| Modality | text, code, image, audio |
| Credit card | Not required |
| Commercial use | – |
| Trains on your data | Yes, on the free tier |
| Licence or terms | OpenRouter Terms of Service (last updated 31 Aug 2026) + each provider's Model Terms |
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Model id | thinkingmachines/inkling-small:free |
| Base URL | https://openrouter.ai/api/v1 |
| Last checked | 8 Oct 2026 |
How to use Inkling Small
It speaks the OpenAI API at https://openrouter.ai/api/v1, so the OpenAI SDK you already use works once you change the base URL and key.
curl https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENROUTER_API_KEY" -d '{"model":"thinkingmachines/inkling-small:free","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Hello"}]}'I want to use the free AI model "Inkling Small" from OpenRouter (model id: thinkingmachines/inkling-small:free) in my project. Please: 1. Check the provider docs and give me the exact steps to get a free API key. 2. Give me a minimal working example that reads the key from an environment variable. 3. Tell me the real free limits and any catch (commercial use, card, data use). Listed limits: 20 RPM · 50 RPD (1,000 after buying 10 credits). 4. If the same provider has a more generous free option, mention it.
Before you ship on it
- Only 50 requests a day until you buy 10 credits, and many free endpoints keep or train on prompts: OpenRouter marks the NVIDIA, Poolside, Liquid, Thinking Machines and Inception free endpoints 'Trains', and Google AI Studio (55 days) and Cohere (30 days) as retaining prompts.
- Prompts on the free tier may be used to train models. Keep customer data off it.
- OpenRouter Terms (last updated 31 Aug 2026) allow incorporating the Service into your own products and services, but you must follow each model's Model Terms; the FAQ says free models 'are usually not suitable for…
- Free tiers are shared capacity: treat the limits as a ceiling, not a promise, and keep a paid fallback.
Questions
Is Inkling Small on OpenRouter free?
Yes. OpenRouter offers it as free api tier, with these limits: 20 RPM · 50 RPD (1,000 after buying 10 credits). No credit card is needed.
Can I use Inkling Small on OpenRouter commercially?
The provider’s terms do not say. Ask them before you build a product on it.
How do I start with Inkling Small on OpenRouter?
It speaks the OpenAI API at https://openrouter.ai/api/v1, so the OpenAI SDK you already use works once you change the base URL and key.
Source: openrouter.ai/thinkingmachines/inkling-small:free, checked 8 Oct 2026.