Inkling Small vs Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 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.
Thinking MachinesInkling Small
70/100- ECI150.2
- Price$0.50 / $1.20
- Context1.05M
GoogleGemini 3.5 Flash Lite
70/100- ECI145.1
- Price$0.30 / $2.50
- Context1.05M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 27B
67/100- ECI149.4
- Price$0.40 / $2.50
- Context262K
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 contextInkling Small and Gemini 3.5 Flash LiteInkling Small 1,048,576 · Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 1,048,576 · Qwen3.8 27B 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 3.5 Flash LiteInkling Small: Text, Images, Audio · Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3.8 27B: Text, Images, Video
- Self-hostingInkling Small and Qwen3.8 27BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Inkling Small | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 78 | 72 | 77 |
| Price | 25% | 58 | 53 | 51 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 100 | 80 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 61 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 70/100 | 70/100 | 67/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Inkling SmallThinking Machines | Gemini 3.5 Flash LiteGoogle | Qwen3.8 27BAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 150.2 (best) | 145.1 | 149.4 |
| ECI rank | #47 of 148 (best) | #79 of 148 | #53 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 88.5% (best) | 83.3% | — |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 46.3% (best) | 26.0% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 90.0% (best) | 71.1% | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 19.1% | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.50 | $0.30 (best) | $0.40 |
| Output | $1.20 (best) | $2.50 | $2.50 |
| Cached input | — | $0.03 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.675 (best) | $0.85 | $0.925 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 11 providers | Official Google API | Median of 39 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens |
| Max output | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens | 32,768 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | Yes | Yes | No |
| Video | No | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yesminimal · low · medium · high | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenApache-2.0 | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | — | gemini-3.5-flash-lite | — |
| API providers | 11 | 26 | 41 (best) |
| Released | Jul 30, 2026 | Jul 21, 2026 | Aug 14, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Mar 2026 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Inkling Small$7.40
- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite$8.00
- Qwen3.8 27B$9.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Inkling Small, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 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, Inkling Small, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 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 Inkling Small, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 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?
Inkling Small and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite have the largest context windows (1,048,576 and 1,048,576 tokens), against 262,144 for Qwen3.8 27B. Maximum output per response: Inkling Small up to 1,048,576, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite up to 65,536, Qwen3.8 27B up to 32,768 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio; Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; 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.
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