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Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs Inkling Small: API price, context & features · api14

Google: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs Thinking Machines: Inkling Small

A side-by-side comparison of Google: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview ($0.88 / 1M tokens) and Thinking Machines: Inkling Small ($1.58 / 1M tokens) using current USD prices and capabilities from the api14 catalog. Both run through the same OpenAI-compatible API.

Specifications

	Google: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview	Thinking Machines: Inkling Small
Provider	Google	Thinking Machines
Input	$0.88 / 1M tokens	$1.58 / 1M tokens
Output	$5.25 / 1M tokens	$4.20 / 1M tokens
Cache read	$0.09 / 1M tokens	$0.35 / 1M tokens
Cache write	$0.29 / 1M tokens	-
Reasoning	$5.25 / 1M tokens	-
Audio input	$1.75 / 1M tokens	-
Image	$0.000001 / image	-
Web search	$49.00 / 1K searches	-
Context window	1,048,576	524,288
Max output	65,536	262,144
Input	text, image, video, file, audio	text, image, audio
Output	text	text
Tool calling
Structured output
Reasoning control
Added	Mar 3, 2026	Jul 30, 2026

Key differences

Google: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview is 44% cheaper on input tokens.
Thinking Machines: Inkling Small is 20% cheaper on output tokens.
Google: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview reads 2.0× more context (1,048,576 tokens).
Only Google: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview supports structured JSON output.
A request with 1,000 input and 500 output tokens costs $0.00350 with Google: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and $0.00368 with Thinking Machines: Inkling Small.

In depth

Google: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview is a text model from Google, listed under the model id google/gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview. Thinking Machines: Inkling Small is a text model from Thinking Machines, listed under the model id thinkingmachines/inkling-small. Both are served through api14 as text output models with tool calling and reasoning support, so at a glance they look like siblings in the same category, but they were built by different labs with different priorities.

The clearest split is context and input breadth. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview takes up to 1,048,576 tokens of context, twice the 524,288 tokens Inkling Small accepts. It also accepts more input types: text, image, video, file and audio, where Inkling Small takes text, image and audio only. On parameters, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview supports structured outputs and response_format, which Inkling Small does not, while Inkling Small exposes a wider set of sampling and penalty controls (frequency_penalty, presence_penalty, repetition_penalty, logit_bias, min_p, top_k, stop) that Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview's list does not include. Neither model is singled out as the only one with tools or the only one with reasoning, so treat those as about equal.

For a developer picking between them, the qualitative pricing fields point in opposite directions: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview is the cheaper option for input, while Inkling Small is the cheaper option for output. That means the right choice depends on the shape of your traffic. If you send long prompts, large documents, video or files, or you need a very large working context, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview is the natural fit, and its input price advantage compounds the more you push in. If your prompts are short but your generations are long, for example heavy reasoning traces, long transcripts or iterative drafting, Inkling Small's output pricing works in your favour. If you need structured outputs or response_format, that decides it for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview, since Inkling Small does not list those parameters. If you want fine control over sampling through penalties, top_k or min_p, Inkling Small is the more tunable of the two.

Calling either one through api14 uses the same OpenAI-compatible surface. You point your existing OpenAI client at api14's base URL with your api14 key, then set the model field to google/gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview or thinkingmachines/inkling-small. Everything else, the messages array, the tools array, temperature, max_tokens, reasoning settings and streaming, keeps the same shape. Switching between the two is a one line change to the model id, so you can route by task, by cost profile or by context size without rewriting your integration.

There are still cases where the model with the smaller context is the better call. Inkling Small is the cheaper side for output, so for short input prompts that produce long text, plus the extra sampling controls it exposes, it can be the more economical and more controllable choice even though Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview wins on context length and input modalities.

Switch with one string

Both models use the same endpoint and request shape. Change the model value from "google/gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview" to "thinkingmachines/inkling-small" and prompts, streaming and tools keep working.

Google: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview details & playground →Thinking Machines: Inkling Small details & playground →

import OpenAI from "openai";

const client = new OpenAI({
  baseURL: "https://api14.com/api/v1",
  apiKey: process.env.API14_API_KEY,
});

const result = await client.chat.completions.create({
  "model": "thinkingmachines/inkling-small",
  "messages": [
    {
      "role": "user",
      "content": "Explain vector databases in two sentences."
    }
  ]
});
console.log(result.choices[0].message.content);

Google: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs Thinking Machines: Inkling Small

Specifications

Key differences

In depth

Switch with one string

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