Lyria 3 Pro Preview is free for input tokens while Inkling costs $1 per 1M tokens.
API cost decision in 10 seconds
🔥Lyria 3 Pro Preview vs Inkling
Pick Lyria 3 Pro Preview when budget is the priority.
Budget verdict
Pick Lyria 3 Pro Preview when budget is the priority.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Lyria 3 Pro Preview is estimated at $0 vs $3.02 for Inkling, saving $3.02 (100% lower).
The reported context window is tied, so cost and provider fit carry more weight. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $30.25. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Lyria 3 Pro Preview stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | Lyria 3 Pro Preview | Inkling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Lyria 3 Pro Preview | $0 | $7.03 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Lyria 3 Pro Preview | $0 | $5.05 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Lyria 3 Pro Preview | $0 | $21.25 |
Lyria 3 Pro Preview is free for output tokens while Inkling costs $4.05 per 1M tokens.
Both models report the same context window at 1.05M tokens.
Lyria 3 Pro Preview is free for the standard workload while the other model is estimated at $3.02.
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.
Quick Decision
Lyria 3 Pro Preview has the lower input price; Lyria 3 Pro Preview has the lower output price; both models report the same context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Lyria 3 Pro Preview is cheaper for the standard workload.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0 for Lyria 3 Pro Preview and $3.02 for Inkling.
Choose Lyria 3 Pro Preview when you care most about lower input-token price, and lower output-token price.
Choose Inkling when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Lyria 3 Pro Preview is estimated at $0 vs $3.02 for Inkling, saving $3.02 (100% lower).
- Lyria 3 Pro Preview is free for the standard workload while the other model is estimated at $3.02.
- Lyria 3 Pro Preview is free for input tokens while Inkling costs $1 per 1M tokens.
- Lyria 3 Pro Preview is free for output tokens while Inkling costs $4.05 per 1M tokens.
- Both models report the same context window at 1.05M tokens.
| Feature | 🔥Lyria 3 Pro Preview (Google) | Inkling (Thinking Machines) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $0 | $1 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $0 | $4.05 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $0 | $3.02 |
| Context Window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Release Date | ||
| Popularity | #17 |
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | Lyria 3 Pro Preview | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Lyria 3 Pro Preview is estimated at $0 vs $3.02 for Inkling, saving $3.02 (100% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | Lyria 3 Pro Preview | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | Lyria 3 Pro Preview | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | Tie | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- Inkling Small (free) can replace Inkling when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Inkling (free) can replace Inkling when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Inkling Small can replace Inkling when lower sample workload cost matters most: $1.05.
- Inkling Small (batch) can replace Inkling when lower sample workload cost matters most: $1.1.
- Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
- Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 offers 1.31M context with $0.15 sample workload cost.
- GLM 5.3 Flash offers 1.31M context with $0.2 sample workload cost.
- Hy4 preview · Tencent · #1
- GPT-5.6 Luna · OpenAI · #2
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 · DeepSeek · #3
- GLM 5.3 Flash · Z.ai · #4
Cheaper alternatives
Review low-cost models sorted by a standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.
Open cheapest modelsLarger context alternatives
Find models with larger context windows for RAG, long documents, and codebase review.
Open largest context modelsProvider catalogs
Compare models within provider hubs before choosing a final API vendor.
Open provider hubsGoogle catalog
Review all tracked Google models before deciding whether this matchup is the right shortlist.
Open Google modelsThinking Machines catalog
Check other Thinking Machines models with comparable pricing, context, or release timing.
Open Thinking Machines modelsFull-length songs are priced at $0.08 per song. Lyria 3 is Google's family of music generation models, available through the Gemini API. With Lyria 3, you can generate high-quality, 48kHz...
Inkling is an open-weight multimodal mixture-of-experts model from Thinking Machines Lab, with 41B active parameters out of 975B total. It is designed for general-purpose reasoning, coding, agentic and tool-use systems,...