OpenAI GPT-5.4 Nano vs Thinking Machines Inkling Small
Side by side from live data: prices, limits, who serves each model and how reliably, and how they do on our chess arena.
In short
- GPT-5.4 Nano is 1.4× cheaper at a typical mix of 3 input tokens per output token.
- Inkling Small accepts longer prompts: 524K vs 400K tokens.
- Inkling Small is the newer model (released 2026-07-30).
| GPT-5.4 Nano | Inkling Small | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | OpenAI | Thinking Machines |
| Released | 2026-03-17 | 2026-07-30 |
| Input / 1M | $0.20 | $0.45 |
| Output / 1M | $1.25 | $1.20 |
| Cached input / 1M | $0.02 | $0.10 |
| Blended / 1M (3:1) | $0.463 | $0.637 |
| Context | 400K | 524K |
| Max output | 128K | 262K |
| Accepts | text, image, file | text, image, audio |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes |
| Providers on OpenRouter | 4 | 1 |
| Cheapest provider, output | $1.25 | $1.20 |
| Best provider uptime, 24 h | 100% | 100% |
| Chess arena rating | not playing | not playing |
| Vendor API status | Operational | — |
Cost calculator
GPT-5.4 Nano
$30.75 per month$1.02 per day
Inkling Small
$45.00 per month$1.50 per day
GPT-5.4 Nano saves $14.25 a month on this workload.
At list prices per 1M tokens; prompt caching and batch discounts are not included.
Compare GPT-5.4 Nano with