Inkling vs Inkling Small vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Inkling Small comes out ahead, 70 to 59 and 54 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Thinking MachinesInkling
59/100- ECI148.6
- Price$3.74 / $9.36
- Context1.05M
- Our pickThinking Machines
Inkling Small
70/100- ECI150.2
- Price$0.50 / $1.20
- Context1.05M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.6 Max Preview
54/100- ECI149.2
- Price$1.30 / $7.80
- Context262K
Inkling Small is our pick
Inkling Small is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Inkling (59) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on price. 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 · Inkling 148.6
- Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.675 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview $2.92 · Inkling $5.14 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextInkling and Inkling SmallInkling 1,048,576 · Inkling Small 1,048,576 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsInkling and Inkling SmallInkling: Text, Images, Audio · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio · Qwen3.6 Max Preview: Text
- Self-hostingInkling and Inkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Inkling | Inkling Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 76 | 78 | 77 |
| Price | 25% | 16 | 58 | 28 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 70 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 61 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 59/100 | 70/100 | 54/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | InklingThinking Machines | Inkling SmallThinking Machines | Qwen3.6 Max PreviewAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 148.6 | 150.2 (best) | 149.2 |
| ECI rank | #57 of 148 | #47 of 148 (best) | #54 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 88.3% | 88.5% (best) | 87.4% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 33.3% | 46.3% (best) | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 88.9% | 90.0% | 91.1% (best) |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | — | — | 76.7% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 40.3% | 19.1% | 52.0% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $3.74 | $0.50 (best) | $1.30 |
| Output | $9.36 | $1.20 (best) | $7.80 |
| Cached input | $0.748 | — | $0.13 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $5.14 | $0.675 (best) | $2.92 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Thinking Machines API | Median of 11 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) | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | Yes | Yes | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenApache-2.0 | OpenApache-2.0 | Proprietary |
| API model ID | thinkingmachines/Inkling:peft:262144 | — | qwen3.6-max-preview |
| API providers | 23 (best) | 11 | 10 |
| Released | Jul 15, 2026 | Jul 30, 2026 | Apr 20, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | — | 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
- Inkling Small$7.40
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview$28.60
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Inkling, Inkling Small or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Inkling Small is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Inkling (59) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Inkling, 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); 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 $0.675 per million tokens for Inkling Small versus $2.92 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview (4.3× as much) and $5.14 for Inkling (7.6× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Inkling Small scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Inkling Small 150.2 (#47 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 (147.5–152.1 vs 147.6–152.0), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Inkling Small 88.5%, Inkling 88.3%, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 87.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.6 Max Preview 91.1%, Inkling Small 90.0%, Inkling 88.9%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.6 Max Preview 52.0%, Inkling 40.3%, Inkling Small 19.1%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Inkling and 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. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Inkling and Inkling Small 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, 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 accepts text, images and audio; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio; Qwen3.6 Max Preview accepts text. Inkling handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Inkling and 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. Inkling came out Jul 15, 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.
