Grok 4.6 vs Inkling Small vs Qwen3.8 Max
Too close to call on our weighted score (Inkling Small 70, Qwen3.8 Max 69, Grok 4.6 65). The right pick depends on what you value most.
xAIGrok 4.6
65/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context500K
Thinking MachinesInkling Small
70/100- ECI150.2
- Price$0.50 / $1.20
- Context1.05M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 Max
69/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context1M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Inkling Small 70/100, Qwen3.8 Max 69/100, Grok 4.6 65/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.6 for raw capability, Inkling Small on price and Inkling Small for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGrok 4.6Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.6 156.6 · Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 · Inkling Small 150.2
- Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.675 · Grok 4.6 $3.00 · Qwen3.8 Max $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextInkling SmallInkling Small 1,048,576 · Qwen3.8 Max 1,000,000 · Grok 4.6 500,000 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.8 MaxGrok 4.6: Text, Images · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio · Qwen3.8 Max: Text, Images, PDFs, Video
- Self-hostingInkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Grok 4.6 | Inkling Small | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 86 | 78 | 86 |
| Price | 25% | 27 | 58 | 27 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 70 | 90 |
| Context window | 10% | 48 | 61 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 65/100 | 70/100 | 69/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Grok 4.6xAI | Inkling SmallThinking Machines | Qwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 156.6 (best) | 150.2 | 156.6 |
| ECI rank | #19 of 148 (best) | #47 of 148 | #20 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 94.0% (best) | 88.5% | 92.7% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 66.0% | 46.3% | 74.7% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 99.2% | 90.0% | 99.4% (best) |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 49.3% (best) | 19.1% | 45.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $2.00 | $0.50 (best) | $2.00 |
| Output | $6.00 | $1.20 (best) | $6.00 |
| Cached input | $0.50 | — | $0.25 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $3.00 | $0.675 (best) | $3.00 |
| Long-context rate | Over 200K: $4.00 / $12.00 | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official xAI API | Median of 11 providers | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 500,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 500,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | Yes | No |
| Video | No | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh | Yes | Yeslow · medium · xhigh |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenApache-2.0 | Proprietary |
| API model ID | grok-4.6 | — | qwen3.8-max |
| API providers | 29 (best) | 11 | 25 |
| Released | Aug 12, 2026 | Jul 30, 2026 | Aug 3, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Feb 1, 2026 | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Grok 4.6$32.00
- Inkling Small$7.40
- Qwen3.8 Max$32.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Grok 4.6, Inkling Small or Qwen3.8 Max?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Inkling Small 70/100, Qwen3.8 Max 69/100, Grok 4.6 65/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Grok 4.6 for raw capability, Inkling Small on price and Inkling Small for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Grok 4.6, Inkling Small or Qwen3.8 Max?
Inkling Small is cheaper at $0.50 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). Grok 4.6 costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official xAI API price); Qwen3.8 Max costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.675 per million tokens for Inkling Small versus $3.00 for Grok 4.6 (4.4× as much) and $3.00 for Qwen3.8 Max (4.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Grok 4.6 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.6 156.6 (#19 of 148), Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 (#20 of 148) and Inkling Small 150.2 (#47 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (154.7–158.9 vs 154.5–158.8), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Grok 4.6 94.0%, Qwen3.8 Max 92.7%, Inkling Small 88.5%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Qwen3.8 Max 74.7%, Grok 4.6 66.0%, Inkling Small 46.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%, Grok 4.6 99.2%, Inkling Small 90.0%; SimpleQA Verified — Grok 4.6 49.3%, Qwen3.8 Max 45.8%, Inkling Small 19.1%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.6, Inkling Small and Qwen3.8 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Grok 4.6 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?
Inkling Small has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Qwen3.8 Max and 500,000 for Grok 4.6. Maximum output per response: Grok 4.6 up to 500,000, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576, Qwen3.8 Max up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Grok 4.6 accepts text and images; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio; Qwen3.8 Max accepts text, images, PDFs and video. Qwen3.8 Max handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Inkling Small publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Grok 4.6 and Qwen3.8 Max is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Grok 4.6 is the newest, released Aug 12, 2026. Qwen3.8 Max came out Aug 3, 2026; Inkling Small came out Jul 30, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Grok 4.6 Feb 1, 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.
