ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B vs Inkling Small vs GLM-5

Inkling Small comes out ahead, 70 to 65 and 55 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.5 397B-A17B

    Released Feb 15, 2026

    65/100
    • ECI146.7
    • Price$0.60 / $3.60
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.5 397B-A17B
  2. 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

  3. Z.ai (Zhipu)

    GLM-5

    Released Feb 12, 2026

    55/100
    • ECI145.8
    • Price$1.00 / $3.20
    • Context205K
    Full specs Remove GLM-5
01 — Verdict

Inkling Small is our pick

Inkling Small is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Qwen3.5 397B-A17B (65) and GLM-5 (55). It leads on capability, price and context window. Qwen3.5 397B-A17B wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityInkling SmallCapabilities Index (ECI): Inkling Small 150.2 · Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 146.7 · GLM-5 145.8
  • Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.675 · Qwen3.5 397B-A17B $1.35 · GLM-5 $1.55 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextInkling SmallInkling Small 1,048,576 · Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 262,144 · GLM-5 204,800 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.5 397B-A17BQwen3.5 397B-A17B: Text, Images, Audio, Video · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio · GLM-5: Text
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.5 397B-A17BInkling SmallGLM-5
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%747873
Price25%445841
Inputs & features15%907035
Context window10%376132
Overall100%65/10070/10055/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B vs Inkling Small vs GLM-5 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.5 397B-A17BAlibaba (Qwen)Inkling SmallThinking MachinesGLM-5Z.ai (Zhipu)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)146.7150.2 (best)145.8
ECI rank#67 of 148#47 of 148 (best)#74 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions86.4%88.5% (best)87.8%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics31.2%46.3% (best)—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics88.9%90.0% (best)80.0%
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues——72.1%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—19.1%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.60$0.50 (best)$1.00
Output$3.60$1.20 (best)$3.20
Cached input——$0.20
Blended (3:1)$1.35$0.675 (best)$1.55
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 11 providersOfficial Z.AI API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)204,800 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioYesYesNo
VideoYesNoNo
ReasoningYesYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenApache-2.0Open
API model IDqwen3.5-397b-a17b—glm-5
API providers231127 (best)
ReleasedFeb 15, 2026Jul 30, 2026Feb 12, 2026
Knowledge cutoff———
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.

  • Qwen3.5 397B-A17B$13.20
  • Inkling Small$7.40
  • GLM-5$16.40
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.5 397B-A17B, Inkling Small or GLM-5?

Inkling Small is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Qwen3.5 397B-A17B (65) and GLM-5 (55). It leads on capability, price and context window. Qwen3.5 397B-A17B wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B, Inkling Small or GLM-5?

Inkling Small is cheaper at $0.50 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). Qwen3.5 397B-A17B costs $0.60 input / $3.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); GLM-5 costs $1.00 input / $3.20 output per million tokens (official Z.AI 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 $1.35 for Qwen3.5 397B-A17B (2× as much) and $1.55 for GLM-5 (2.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Inkling Small scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Inkling Small 150.2 (#47 of 148), Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 146.7 (#67 of 148) and GLM-5 145.8 (#74 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (147.5–152.1 vs 144.8–148.2), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Inkling Small 88.5%, GLM-5 87.8%, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 86.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Inkling Small 90.0%, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 88.9%, GLM-5 80.0%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 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 Small has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.5 397B-A17B and 204,800 for GLM-5. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.5 397B-A17B up to 65,536, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576, GLM-5 up to 131,072 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B accepts text, images, audio and video; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio; GLM-5 accepts text. Qwen3.5 397B-A17B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, all three publish their weights (Apache-2.0), so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Inkling Small is the newest, released Jul 30, 2026. Qwen3.5 397B-A17B came out Feb 15, 2026; GLM-5 came out Feb 12, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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