ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Inkling Small vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview

Inkling Small comes out ahead, 70 to 54 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    Thinking Machines

    Inkling Small

    Released Jul 30, 2026

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

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.6 Max Preview

    Released Apr 20, 2026

    54/100
    • ECI149.2
    • Price$1.30 / $7.80
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.6 Max Preview

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Inkling Small is our pick

Inkling Small is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityInkling SmallCapabilities Index (ECI): Inkling Small 150.2 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2
  • Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.675 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview $2.92 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextInkling SmallInkling Small 1,048,576 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsInkling SmallInkling Small: Text, Images, Audio · Qwen3.6 Max Preview: Text
  • Self-hostingInkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightInkling SmallQwen3.6 Max Preview
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7877
Price25%5828
Inputs & features15%7035
Context window10%6137
Overall100%70/10054/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Inkling Small vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview specifications side by side
SpecificationInkling SmallThinking MachinesQwen3.6 Max PreviewAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)150.2 (best)149.2
ECI rank#47 of 148 (best)#54 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions88.5% (best)87.4%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics46.3%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics90.0%91.1% (best)
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—76.7%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions19.1%52.0% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.50 (best)$1.30
Output$1.20 (best)$7.80
Cached input—$0.13
Blended (3:1)$0.675 (best)$2.92
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 11 providersOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)262,144 tokens
Max output1,048,576 tokens (best)65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioYesNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenApache-2.0Proprietary
API model ID—qwen3.6-max-preview
API providers11 (best)10
ReleasedJul 30, 2026Apr 20, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—Apr 2025
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.

  • Inkling Small$7.40
  • Qwen3.6 Max Preview$28.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Inkling Small or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?

Inkling Small is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Inkling Small or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?

Inkling Small is cheaper at $0.50 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). Qwen3.6 Max Preview costs $1.30 input / $7.80 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 $2.92 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview (4.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Inkling Small scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Inkling Small 150.2 (#47 of 148) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2 (#54 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (147.5–152.1 vs 147.6–152.0), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Inkling Small 88.5%, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 87.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.6 Max Preview 91.1%, Inkling Small 90.0%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.6 Max Preview 52.0%, Inkling Small 19.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Inkling Small 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. Both 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 262,144 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview. Maximum output per response: Inkling Small up to 1,048,576, Qwen3.6 Max Preview up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio; Qwen3.6 Max Preview accepts text. Inkling Small 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; Qwen3.6 Max Preview is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Inkling Small is the newest, released Jul 30, 2026. Qwen3.6 Max Preview came out Apr 20, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3.6 Max Preview Apr 2025.

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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