ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.8 27B vs Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B vs Inkling Small

Inkling Small comes out ahead, 70 to 67 and 62 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.8 27B

    Released Aug 14, 2026

    67/100
    • ECI149.4
    • Price$0.40 / $2.50
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.8 27B

  2. NVIDIA

    Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B

    Released Jun 4, 2026

    62/100
    • ECI146.2
    • Price$0.50 / $2.50
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B
  3. 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
01 — Verdict

Inkling Small is our pick

Inkling Small is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Qwen3.8 27B (67) and Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B (62). It leads on price. Qwen3.8 27B 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 · Qwen3.8 27B 149.4 · Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 146.2
  • Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.675 · Qwen3.8 27B $0.925 · Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B $1.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextInkling SmallInkling Small 1,048,576 · Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 1,000,000 · Qwen3.8 27B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.8 27B and Inkling SmallQwen3.8 27B: Text, Images, Video · Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B: Text · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.8 27BNemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55BInkling Small
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%777378
Price25%515058
Inputs & features15%804570
Context window10%376061
Overall100%67/10062/10070/100
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 Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B vs Inkling Small specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.8 27BAlibaba (Qwen)Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55BNVIDIAInkling SmallThinking Machines
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)149.4146.2150.2 (best)
ECI rank#53 of 148#70 of 148#47 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—85.4%88.5% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics——46.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—86.7%90.0% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions——19.1%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40 (best)$0.50$0.50
Output$2.50$2.50$1.20 (best)
Cached input—$0.15—
Blended (3:1)$0.925$1.00$0.675 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 39 providersOfficial Nvidia APIMedian of 11 providers
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens1,000,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Max output32,768 tokens128,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoYes
VideoYesNoNo
ReasoningYesYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenOpenApache-2.0
API model ID—nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b—
API providers41 (best)2111
ReleasedAug 14, 2026Jun 4, 2026Jul 30, 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.

  • Qwen3.8 27B$9.00
  • Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B$10.00
  • Inkling Small$7.40
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.8 27B, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B or Inkling Small?

Inkling Small is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Qwen3.8 27B (67) and Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B (62). It leads on price. Qwen3.8 27B wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.8 27B, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B or Inkling Small?

Inkling Small is cheaper at $0.50 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). Qwen3.8 27B costs $0.40 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (median across 39 API providers); Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B costs $0.50 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official Nvidia 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 $0.925 for Qwen3.8 27B (1.4× as much) and $1.00 for Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B (1.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Inkling Small scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Inkling Small 150.2 (#47 of 148), Qwen3.8 27B 149.4 (#53 of 148) and Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 146.2 (#70 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (147.5–152.1 vs 147.5–151.6), so treat the gap as small.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.8 27B, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 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 1,000,000 for Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B and 262,144 for Qwen3.8 27B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.8 27B up to 32,768, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B up to 128,000, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.8 27B accepts text, images and video; Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B accepts text; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio. Qwen3.8 27B 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?

Qwen3.8 27B is the newest, released Aug 14, 2026. Inkling Small came out Jul 30, 2026; Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B came out Jun 4, 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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