ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Inkling Small vs Qwen3.8 27B

Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 70, Inkling Small 70, Qwen3.8 27B 67). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Google

    Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite

    Released Jul 21, 2026

    70/100
    • ECI145.1
    • Price$0.30 / $2.50
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite

  2. Thinking Machines

    Inkling Small

    Released Jul 30, 2026

    70/100
    • ECI150.2
    • Price$0.50 / $1.20
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Inkling Small

  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.8 27B

    Released Aug 14, 2026

    67/100
    • ECI149.4
    • Price$0.40 / $2.50
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.8 27B
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 70/100, Inkling Small 70/100, Qwen3.8 27B 67/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Inkling Small for raw capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityInkling SmallCapabilities Index (ECI): Inkling Small 150.2 · Qwen3.8 27B 149.4 · Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 145.1
  • Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.675 · Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite $0.85 · Qwen3.8 27B $0.925 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Inkling SmallGemini 3.5 Flash Lite 1,048,576 · Inkling Small 1,048,576 · Qwen3.8 27B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio · Qwen3.8 27B: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingInkling Small and Qwen3.8 27BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemini 3.5 Flash LiteInkling SmallQwen3.8 27B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%727877
Price25%535851
Inputs & features15%1007080
Context window10%616137
Overall100%70/10070/10067/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Inkling Small vs Qwen3.8 27B specifications side by side
SpecificationGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGoogleInkling SmallThinking MachinesQwen3.8 27BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)145.1150.2 (best)149.4
ECI rank#79 of 148#47 of 148 (best)#53 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions83.3%88.5% (best)—
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics26.0%46.3% (best)—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics71.1%90.0% (best)—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—19.1%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.30 (best)$0.50$0.40
Output$2.50$1.20 (best)$2.50
Cached input$0.03——
Blended (3:1)$0.85$0.675 (best)$0.925
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Google APIMedian of 11 providersMedian of 39 providers
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)1,048,576 tokens (best)262,144 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)32,768 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioYesYesNo
VideoYesNoYes
ReasoningYesminimal · low · medium · highYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenApache-2.0Open
API model IDgemini-3.5-flash-lite——
API providers261141 (best)
ReleasedJul 21, 2026Jul 30, 2026Aug 14, 2026
Knowledge cutoffMar 2026——
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite$8.00
  • Inkling Small$7.40
  • Qwen3.8 27B$9.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite, Inkling Small or Qwen3.8 27B?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 70/100, Inkling Small 70/100, Qwen3.8 27B 67/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Inkling Small for raw capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite, Inkling Small or Qwen3.8 27B?

Inkling Small is cheaper at $0.50 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs $0.30 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official Google API price); Qwen3.8 27B costs $0.40 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (median across 39 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.675 per million tokens for Inkling Small versus $0.85 for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite (1.3× as much) and $0.925 for Qwen3.8 27B (1.4× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Inkling Small scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Inkling Small 150.2 (#47 of 148), Qwen3.8 27B 149.4 (#53 of 148) and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 145.1 (#79 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (147.5–152.1 vs 147.5–151.6), so treat the gap as small.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite, Inkling Small and Qwen3.8 27B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Inkling Small leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Inkling Small have the largest context windows (1,048,576 and 1,048,576 tokens), against 262,144 for Qwen3.8 27B. Maximum output per response: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite up to 65,536, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576, Qwen3.8 27B up to 32,768 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio; Qwen3.8 27B accepts text, images and video. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Inkling Small and Qwen3.8 27B publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.8 27B is the newest, released Aug 14, 2026. Inkling Small came out Jul 30, 2026; Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite came out Jul 21, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite Mar 2026.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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