Inkling vs Gemini 3 Pro Preview vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Gemini 3 Pro Preview comes out ahead, 67 to 59 and 54 on our weighted score, though Qwen3.6 Max Preview is 35% cheaper per token.
Thinking MachinesInkling
59/100- ECI148.6
- Price$3.74 / $9.36
- Context1.05M
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 3 Pro Preview
67/100- ECI153.0
- Price$2.00 / $12.00
- Context1.05M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.6 Max Preview
54/100- ECI149.2
- Price$1.30 / $7.80
- Context262K
Gemini 3 Pro Preview is our pick
Gemini 3 Pro Preview is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against Inkling (59) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on capability and inputs & features. Qwen3.6 Max Preview wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGemini 3 Pro PreviewCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 3 Pro Preview 153.0 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2 · Inkling 148.6
- Lowest priceQwen3.6 Max PreviewQwen3.6 Max Preview $2.92 · Gemini 3 Pro Preview $4.50 · Inkling $5.14 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextInkling and Gemini 3 Pro PreviewInkling 1,048,576 · Gemini 3 Pro Preview 1,048,576 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 3 Pro PreviewInkling: Text, Images, Audio · Gemini 3 Pro Preview: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3.6 Max Preview: Text
- Self-hostingInklingPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Inkling | Gemini 3 Pro Preview | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 76 | 82 | 77 |
| Price | 25% | 16 | 19 | 28 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 100 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 61 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 59/100 | 67/100 | 54/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | InklingThinking Machines | Gemini 3 Pro PreviewGoogle | Qwen3.6 Max PreviewAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 148.6 | 153.0 (best) | 149.2 |
| ECI rank | #57 of 148 | #39 of 148 (best) | #54 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 88.3% | 92.6% (best) | 87.4% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 33.3% | — | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 88.9% | 91.4% (best) | 91.1% |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | — | 72.9% | 76.7% (best) |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 40.3% | — | 52.0% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $3.74 | $2.00 | $1.30 (best) |
| Output | $9.36 | $12.00 | $7.80 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.748 | — | $0.13 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $5.14 | $4.50 | $2.92 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Thinking Machines API | Median of 2 providers | Official Alibaba API |
| 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 | 65,536 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | Yes | Yes | No |
| Video | No | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenApache-2.0 | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | thinkingmachines/Inkling:peft:262144 | — | qwen3.6-max-preview |
| API providers | 23 (best) | 3 | 10 |
| Released | Jul 15, 2026 | Nov 18, 2025 | Apr 20, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Jan 2025 | Apr 2025 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Inkling$56.12
- Gemini 3 Pro Preview$44.00
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview$28.60
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Inkling, Gemini 3 Pro Preview or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Gemini 3 Pro Preview is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against Inkling (59) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on capability and inputs & features. Qwen3.6 Max Preview wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Inkling, Gemini 3 Pro Preview or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is cheaper at $1.30 input / $7.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Gemini 3 Pro Preview costs $2.00 input / $12.00 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers); Inkling costs $3.74 input / $9.36 output per million tokens (official Thinking Machines API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $2.92 per million tokens for Qwen3.6 Max Preview versus $4.50 for Gemini 3 Pro Preview (1.5× as much) and $5.14 for Inkling (1.8× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Gemini 3 Pro Preview scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 3 Pro Preview 153.0 (#39 of 148), Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2 (#54 of 148) and Inkling 148.6 (#57 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (150.6–155.2 vs 147.6–152.0), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemini 3 Pro Preview 92.6%, Inkling 88.3%, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 87.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemini 3 Pro Preview 91.4%, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 91.1%, Inkling 88.9%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Inkling yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 3 Pro Preview 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 and Gemini 3 Pro Preview have the largest context windows (1,048,576 and 1,048,576 tokens), against 262,144 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview. Maximum output per response: Inkling up to 1,048,576, Gemini 3 Pro Preview up to 65,536, Qwen3.6 Max Preview up to 65,536 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Inkling accepts text, images and audio; Gemini 3 Pro Preview accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Qwen3.6 Max Preview accepts text. Gemini 3 Pro Preview handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Inkling publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Gemini 3 Pro Preview and Qwen3.6 Max Preview is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Inkling is the newest, released Jul 15, 2026. Qwen3.6 Max Preview came out Apr 20, 2026; Gemini 3 Pro Preview came out Nov 18, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 3 Pro Preview Jan 2025, 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.
