ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Qwen3.8 27B vs Gemini 4 Argon vs Inkling Small

Gemini 4 Argon comes out ahead, 74 to 68 and 66 on our weighted score, though Inkling Small is 5× cheaper per token.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.8 27B

    Released Aug 14, 2026

    66/100
    • ECI151.8
    • Price$0.40 / $2.55
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.8 27B
  2. Our pick

    Google

    Gemini 4 Argon

    Released Oct 13, 2026New

    74/100
    • ECI166.1
    • Price$2.00 / $10.00
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 4 Argon

  3. Thinking Machines

    Inkling Small

    Released Jul 30, 2026

    68/100
    • ECI150.5
    • Price$0.58 / $1.44
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Inkling Small
01 — Verdict

Gemini 4 Argon is our pick

Gemini 4 Argon is the better all-round choice, scoring 74/100 against Inkling Small (68) and Qwen3.8 27B (66). It leads on capability and inputs & features. Inkling Small wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGemini 4 ArgonCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 4 Argon 166.1 · Qwen3.8 27B 151.8 · Inkling Small 150.5
  • Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.795 · Qwen3.8 27B $0.938 · Gemini 4 Argon $4.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 4 Argon and Inkling SmallGemini 4 Argon 1,048,576 · Inkling Small 1,048,576 · Qwen3.8 27B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 4 ArgonQwen3.8 27B: Text, Images, Video · Gemini 4 Argon: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio
  • Self-hostingQwen3.8 27B and Inkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.8 27BGemini 4 ArgonInkling Small
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%799677
Price25%492052
Inputs & features15%7010070
Context window10%376161
Overall100%66/10074/10068/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.8 27B vs Gemini 4 Argon vs Inkling Small specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.8 27BAlibaba (Qwen)Gemini 4 ArgonGoogleInkling SmallThinking Machines
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)151.8166.1 (best)150.5
ECI rank#54 of 165#7 of 165 (best)#58 of 165
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—96.4% (best)88.5%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—86.0% (best)46.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—100% (best)90.0%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—76.0% (best)19.1%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40 (best)$2.00$0.58
Output$2.55$10.00$1.44 (best)
Cached input—$0.10 (best)$0.116
Blended (3:1)$0.938$4.00$0.795 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 49 providersOfficial Google APIOfficial Thinking Machines API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)1,048,576 tokens (best)
Max output32,768 tokens65,536 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsNoYesNo
AudioNoYesYes
VideoYesYesNo
ReasoningYesYeslow · medium · highYeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpenApache-2.0
API model ID—gemini-4-argonthinkingmachines/Inkling-Small
API providers53 (best)2412
ReleasedAug 14, 2026Oct 13, 2026Jul 30, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—Mar 2026—
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.

  • Qwen3.8 27B$9.10
  • Gemini 4 Argon$40.00
  • Inkling Small$8.68
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.8 27B, Gemini 4 Argon or Inkling Small?

Gemini 4 Argon is the better all-round choice, scoring 74/100 against Inkling Small (68) and Qwen3.8 27B (66). It leads on capability and inputs & features. Inkling Small wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.8 27B, Gemini 4 Argon or Inkling Small?

Inkling Small is cheaper at $0.58 input / $1.44 output per million tokens (official Thinking Machines API price). Qwen3.8 27B costs $0.40 input / $2.55 output per million tokens (median across 49 API providers); Gemini 4 Argon costs $2.00 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (official Google API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.795 per million tokens for Inkling Small versus $0.938 for Qwen3.8 27B (1.2× as much) and $4.00 for Gemini 4 Argon (5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Gemini 4 Argon scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 4 Argon 166.1 (#7 of 165), Qwen3.8 27B 151.8 (#54 of 165) and Inkling Small 150.5 (#58 of 165). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (163.1–170.3 vs 149.9–153.6), so the gap is a real one.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.8 27B, Gemini 4 Argon and Inkling Small yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 4 Argon 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?

Gemini 4 Argon and Inkling Small have the largest context windows (1,048,576 and 1,048,576 tokens), against 262,144 for Qwen3.8 27B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.8 27B up to 32,768, Gemini 4 Argon up to 65,536, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.8 27B accepts text, images and video; Gemini 4 Argon accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio. Gemini 4 Argon handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3.8 27B and Inkling Small publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Gemini 4 Argon is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Gemini 4 Argon is the newest, released Oct 13, 2026. Qwen3.8 27B came out Aug 14, 2026; Inkling Small came out Jul 30, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 4 Argon Mar 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 Nov 2, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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