Inkling vs Palmyra X6

Thinking Machines Lab · US  |  Writer · US · Updated June 2026

Quick verdict

Pick Inkling for the first model release from mira murati's thinking machines lab (ex-openai cto) - one of the most closely-watched new labs in ai or a 975b-parameter moe (41b active) with native text, image, and audio reasoning in one model. Pick Palmyra X6 for enterprise agentic workflows - built specifically for marketing/revenue teams running multi-step agents or writer says its harness upgrades cut agent-workflow token costs by roughly 52% and improve speed by roughly 48% (writer's own figures). Choose Inkling if you need self-hosting or data privacy; Palmyra X6 if you want a managed API.

Inkling (Thinking Machines Lab) and Palmyra X6 (Writer) are two of the models people most often weigh against each other in 2026. Inkling is mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab debuts with Inkling - a 975B open-weight MoE with native multimodal reasoning and a dialable thinking-effort control. Palmyra X6 is writer's enterprise agentic flagship - a GLM-5.2-based model with harness upgrades Writer says cut agent token costs by roughly half. They diverge most on context window and open vs. closed weights — each quantified below from the models' real specs.

Key differences at a glance

Side-by-side specs

SpecInklingPalmyra X6
ProviderThinking Machines Lab (US) Writer (US)
ReleasedJuly 15, 2026 August 13, 2026
Context window1M (~1,500 pages) 128K (~192 pages)
Price (in/out)Open weight (self-host / free) Not published
Open weight?Yes — self-hostable No — API only
Modalitiestext, image, audio, code text, code
SWE-Bench VerifiedNot published Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1MNot published Not published

Who wins what

The first model release from Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab (ex-OpenAI CTO) - one of the most closely-watched new labs in AI

Inkling

Open weights make this possible at all — Palmyra X6 is API-only, so it cannot leave the vendor's servers.

A 975B-parameter MoE (41B active) with native text, image, and audio reasoning in one model

Inkling

Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab debuts with Inkling - a 975B open-weight MoE with native multimodal reasoning and a dialable thinking-effort control — and it carries the larger 1M context.

A dialable 'thinking effort' knob (0.2-0.99) that lets you trade speed for depth of reasoning per-request

Inkling

Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab debuts with Inkling - a 975B open-weight MoE with native multimodal reasoning and a dialable thinking-effort control — and its weights are open while Palmyra X6 is API-only.

Enterprise agentic workflows - built specifically for marketing/revenue teams running multi-step agents

Palmyra X6

Inkling is comparatively weak here — a brand-new lab's first release - no multi-generation track record yet

Writer says its harness upgrades cut agent-workflow token costs by roughly 52% and improve speed by roughly 48% (Writer's own figures)

Palmyra X6

Writer's enterprise agentic flagship - a GLM-5.2-based model with harness upgrades Writer says cut agent token costs by roughly half — and it is the newer of the two.

A post-trained variant built on Z.ai's open-weight GLM-5.2, tuned specifically for business agent use

Palmyra X6

Palmyra X6 lists a post-trained variant built on Z.ai's open-weight GLM-5.2, tuned specifically for business agent use among its strengths; Inkling does not.

Largest single-prompt input

Inkling

Its 1M window is about 7.8× larger than Palmyra X6's 128K, fitting roughly 1,500 pages in one prompt.

Which should you pick?

Someone analysing very long documents or codebases

Inkling

Larger 1M window fits more in one prompt.

A team with data-privacy or self-hosting needs

Inkling

Open weights let you run it on your own hardware; Palmyra X6 is API-only.

Anyone whose priority is the first model release from mira murati's thinking machines lab (ex-openai cto) - one of the most closely-watched new labs in ai

Inkling

It is specifically built for that.

Anyone whose priority is enterprise agentic workflows - built specifically for marketing/revenue teams running multi-step agents

Palmyra X6

That is its strongest area.

Inkling: where it fits

Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab debuts with Inkling - a 975B open-weight MoE with native multimodal reasoning and a dialable thinking-effort control. Released July 15, 2026 by Thinking Machines Lab, it is built for the first model release from Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab (ex-OpenAI CTO) - one of the most closely-watched new labs in AI, a 975B-parameter MoE (41B active) with native text, image, and audio reasoning in one model, a dialable 'thinking effort' knob (0.2-0.99) that lets you trade speed for depth of reasoning per-request, and fully open weights (Apache 2.0) at frontier scale - unusual for a model this large and this new.

Its trade-offs are real: a brand-new lab's first release - no multi-generation track record yet, no official hosted API price - available via third-party hosts only at launch, and independent third-party benchmark verification is still limited given how recently it shipped. As an open-weight model, its running cost is your own hardware rather than a per-token fee.

Palmyra X6: where it fits

Writer's enterprise agentic flagship - a GLM-5.2-based model with harness upgrades Writer says cut agent token costs by roughly half. Released August 13, 2026 by Writer, it is built for enterprise agentic workflows - built specifically for marketing/revenue teams running multi-step agents, writer says its harness upgrades cut agent-workflow token costs by roughly 52% and improve speed by roughly 48% (Writer's own figures), and a post-trained variant built on Z.ai's open-weight GLM-5.2, tuned specifically for business agent use.

Its trade-offs: no public per-token API price - sold through Writer's enterprise platform, not a self-serve API, not independently benchmarked on general leaderboards like SWE-bench or Artificial Analysis, and built for a narrower enterprise-agent use case rather than general-purpose chat.

The bottom line for this matchup

The defining split here is open vs. closed. Inkling gives you weights you control — self-host it, fine-tune it, keep data in-house, pay only for hardware. Palmyra X6 gives you a managed, always-updated API with no infrastructure to run. Teams with GPUs, privacy requirements, or huge volume often favour the open model; teams that want zero ops and the latest capabilities favour the closed one. Capability is close enough that this operational question, not the benchmark, usually decides it.

Want both Inkling and Palmyra X6 without two subscriptions? LumiChats gives you these plus 40+ models under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day) — draft with one, cross-check with the other.

See pricing

Frequently asked questions

Is Inkling or Palmyra X6 better for coding?

Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for either model, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, Inkling leans toward the first model release from mira murati's thinking machines lab (ex-openai cto) - one of the most closely-watched new labs in ai while Palmyra X6 leans toward enterprise agentic workflows - built specifically for marketing/revenue teams running multi-step agents, and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.

Which is cheaper, Inkling or Palmyra X6?

Inkling is open-weight, so self-hosting means no per-token fee (you pay for hardware instead), while Palmyra X6 is API-metered at Not published. For most teams without GPUs, the API model is cheaper to start; at very high volume, self-hosting can win.

Which has the bigger context window?

Inkling — 1M vs 128K, about 7.8× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.

Can I use both Inkling and Palmyra X6 together?

Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Inkling, Palmyra X6 and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.

Which is newer, Inkling or Palmyra X6?

Palmyra X6 — released August 13, 2026, about 29 days after Inkling.

Related comparisons

Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.