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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.8 27B vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview vs Inkling Small

Inkling Small comes out ahead, 70 to 67 and 54 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. 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. 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 Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on price and context window. 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 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2
  • Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.675 · Qwen3.8 27B $0.925 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview $2.92 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextInkling SmallInkling Small 1,048,576 · Qwen3.8 27B 262,144 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.8 27B and Inkling SmallQwen3.8 27B: Text, Images, Video · Qwen3.6 Max Preview: Text · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio
  • Self-hostingQwen3.8 27B and Inkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.8 27BQwen3.6 Max PreviewInkling Small
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%777778
Price25%512858
Inputs & features15%803570
Context window10%373761
Overall100%67/10054/10070/100
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 Qwen3.6 Max Preview vs Inkling Small specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.8 27BAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.6 Max PreviewAlibaba (Qwen)Inkling SmallThinking Machines
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)149.4149.2150.2 (best)
ECI rank#53 of 148#54 of 148#47 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—87.4%88.5% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics——46.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—91.1% (best)90.0%
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—76.7%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—52.0% (best)19.1%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40 (best)$1.30$0.50
Output$2.50$7.80$1.20 (best)
Cached input—$0.13—
Blended (3:1)$0.925$2.92$0.675 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 39 providersOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 11 providers
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens262,144 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Max output32,768 tokens65,536 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoYes
VideoYesNoNo
ReasoningYesYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpenApache-2.0
API model ID—qwen3.6-max-preview—
API providers41 (best)1011
ReleasedAug 14, 2026Apr 20, 2026Jul 30, 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.

  • Qwen3.8 27B$9.00
  • Qwen3.6 Max Preview$28.60
  • Inkling Small$7.40
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.8 27B, Qwen3.6 Max Preview or Inkling Small?

Inkling Small is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Qwen3.8 27B (67) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on price and context window. 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, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 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); Qwen3.6 Max Preview costs $1.30 input / $7.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba 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 $2.92 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview (4.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Inkling Small scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Inkling Small 150.2 (#47 of 148), Qwen3.8 27B 149.4 (#53 of 148) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2 (#54 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 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 Qwen3.8 27B and 262,144 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.8 27B up to 32,768, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 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; Qwen3.6 Max Preview accepts text; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio. Qwen3.8 27B 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; Qwen3.6 Max Preview is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.8 27B is the newest, released Aug 14, 2026. Inkling Small came out Jul 30, 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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