Scaledown lists 2 models and Thinkingmachines 6. Scaledown is cheaper on a typical model ($0.03 per 1M tokens median). Below: line-up, price tiers, the cheapest model for each capability, and what each costs for five real workloads.
| Scaledown | Thinkingmachines | |
|---|---|---|
| Models listed | 2 | 6 |
| Models with published pricing | 2 | 6 |
| Typical price (median, 3:1 blend per 1M) | $0.03 | $1.22 |
| Cheapest paid model | ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03) | Thinking Machines: Inkling Small ($0.64) |
| Longest context | ScaleDown: Extract (1M) | Thinking Machines: Inkling (free) (1.0M) |
| Free models | 0 | 2 |
| Newest model | ScaleDown: Extract (2026-10-13) | Thinking Machines: Inkling Small (2026-07-30) |
| Price changes in the last 90 days | 0 | 8 |
For each workload: the cheapest model from each provider that can actually do it (fits the context window; tool calling required for the agent), and its monthly cost at list price.
| Workload (per month) | Scaledown | Thinkingmachines |
|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation | $3.00 with ScaleDown: Extract | $57.75 with Thinking Machines: Inkling Small |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages | $4.80 with ScaleDown: Extract | $66.00 with Thinking Machines: Inkling Small |
| Coding / tool-using agent 2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context | no suitable model | $68.40 with Thinking Machines: Inkling Small |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page | $3.20 with ScaleDown: Extract | $43.20 with Thinking Machines: Inkling Small |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass | $2.00 with ScaleDown: Extract | $23.70 with Thinking Machines: Inkling Small |
| You need | Scaledown | Thinkingmachines |
|---|---|---|
| Any model | ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03) | Thinking Machines: Inkling Small ($0.64) |
| With tool calling | none listed | Thinking Machines: Inkling Small ($0.64) |
| With image input | ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03) | Thinking Machines: Inkling Small ($0.64) |
| With reasoning mode | none listed | Thinking Machines: Inkling Small ($0.64) |
| 128K+ context | ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03) | Thinking Machines: Inkling Small ($0.64) |
| 1M+ context | ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03) | none listed |
| Model type | Scaledown | Thinkingmachines |
|---|---|---|
| text+image+audio->text | 0 | 6 |
| text+image+file->text | 2 | 0 |
| Price per 1M (3:1 blend) | Scaledown | Thinkingmachines |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 0 | 2 |
| Under $0.50 | 2 | 0 |
| $0.50 – $3 | 0 | 4 |
| $3 – $10 | 0 | 0 |
| $10 and up | 0 | 0 |
Scaledown is cheaper on a typical model: a median of $0.03 per 1M tokens (3:1 input/output) against $1.22 for Thinkingmachines. The cheapest paid models are ScaleDown: Extract at $0.03 and Thinking Machines: Inkling Small at $0.64.
It depends on the job: Thinkingmachines offers the broader line-up (2 models vs 6), Scaledown the lower typical price, Thinkingmachines the longest context (1.0M tokens). The workload table above shows which wins for chat, RAG, agents, batch jobs and long documents.
Thinkingmachines: Scaledown lists 2 models and Thinkingmachines lists 6.
Thinkingmachines: Scaledown's longest is ScaleDown: Extract at 1M tokens; Thinkingmachines's is Thinking Machines: Inkling (free) at 1.0M.
Scaledown: none. Thinkingmachines: 2 free models (e.g. Thinking Machines: Inkling (free)).
Scaledown: 2 of 2 models accept images. Thinkingmachines: 6 of 6.