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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Inkling vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview

Inkling comes out ahead, 59 to 54 on our weighted score, though Qwen3.6 Max Preview is 43% cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    Thinking Machines

    Inkling

    Released Jul 15, 2026

    59/100
    • ECI148.6
    • Price$3.74 / $9.36
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Inkling

  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 is our pick

Inkling is the better all-round choice, scoring 59/100 against Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Qwen3.6 Max Preview wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.6 Max PreviewCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2 · Inkling 148.6
  • Lowest priceQwen3.6 Max PreviewQwen3.6 Max Preview $2.92 · Inkling $5.14 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextInklingInkling 1,048,576 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsInklingInkling: Text, Images, Audio · Qwen3.6 Max Preview: Text
  • Self-hostingInklingPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightInklingQwen3.6 Max Preview
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7677
Price25%1628
Inputs & features15%7035
Context window10%6137
Overall100%59/10054/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Inkling vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview specifications side by side
SpecificationInklingThinking MachinesQwen3.6 Max PreviewAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)148.6149.2 (best)
ECI rank#57 of 148#54 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions88.3% (best)87.4%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics33.3%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics88.9%91.1% (best)
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—76.7%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions40.3%52.0% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$3.74$1.30 (best)
Output$9.36$7.80 (best)
Cached input$0.748$0.13 (best)
Blended (3:1)$5.14$2.92 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Thinking Machines APIOfficial 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
ReasoningYeslow · medium · high · xhigh · maxYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenApache-2.0Proprietary
API model IDthinkingmachines/Inkling:peft:262144qwen3.6-max-preview
API providers23 (best)10
ReleasedJul 15, 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$56.12
  • Qwen3.6 Max Preview$28.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

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

Inkling is the better all-round choice, scoring 59/100 against Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Qwen3.6 Max Preview wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Inkling 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). 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 $5.14 for Inkling (1.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2 (#54 of 148) and Inkling 148.6 (#57 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (147.6–152.0 vs 145.7–150.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Inkling 88.3%, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 87.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.6 Max Preview 91.1%, Inkling 88.9%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.6 Max Preview 52.0%, Inkling 40.3%.

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, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 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 has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview. Maximum output per response: Inkling 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; Qwen3.6 Max Preview accepts text. Inkling handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Inkling publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; 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. 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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