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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.8 27B vs Qwen3.7 Plus vs Inkling Small

Too close to call on our weighted score (Inkling Small 70, Qwen3.7 Plus 70, Qwen3.8 27B 67). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  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)

    Qwen3.7 Plus

    Released Jun 2, 2026

    70/100
    • ECI147.4
    • Price$0.40 / $1.60
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.7 Plus

  3. 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

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Inkling Small 70/100, Qwen3.7 Plus 70/100, Qwen3.8 27B 67/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Inkling Small for raw capability. 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 · Qwen3.7 Plus 147.4
  • Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.675 · Qwen3.7 Plus $0.70 · Qwen3.8 27B $0.925 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextInkling SmallInkling Small 1,048,576 · Qwen3.7 Plus 1,000,000 · Qwen3.8 27B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsQwen3.8 27B: Text, Images, Video · Qwen3.7 Plus: Text, Images, 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 27BQwen3.7 PlusInkling Small
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%777578
Price25%515758
Inputs & features15%808070
Context window10%376061
Overall100%67/10070/10070/100
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 Qwen3.7 Plus vs Inkling Small specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.8 27BAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.7 PlusAlibaba (Qwen)Inkling SmallThinking Machines
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)149.4147.4150.2 (best)
ECI rank#53 of 148#61 of 148#47 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—87.9%88.5% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—34.4%46.3% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—93.3% (best)90.0%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions——19.1%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40 (best)$0.40 (best)$0.50
Output$2.50$1.60$1.20 (best)
Cached input—$0.04—
Blended (3:1)$0.925$0.70$0.675 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateOver 256K: $1.20 / $4.80Same rate
Price sourceMedian of 39 providersOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 11 providers
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens1,000,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Max output32,768 tokens64,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoYes
VideoYesYesNo
ReasoningYesYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpenApache-2.0
API model ID—qwen3.7-plus—
API providers41 (best)2511
ReleasedAug 14, 2026Jun 2, 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
  • Qwen3.7 Plus$7.20
  • Inkling Small$7.40
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.8 27B, Qwen3.7 Plus or Inkling Small?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Inkling Small 70/100, Qwen3.7 Plus 70/100, Qwen3.8 27B 67/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Inkling Small for raw capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.8 27B, Qwen3.7 Plus or Inkling Small?

Inkling Small is cheaper at $0.50 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). Qwen3.7 Plus costs $0.40 input / $1.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Qwen3.8 27B costs $0.40 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (median across 39 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.675 per million tokens for Inkling Small versus $0.70 for Qwen3.7 Plus (1× as much) and $0.925 for Qwen3.8 27B (1.4× 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 Qwen3.7 Plus 147.4 (#61 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, Qwen3.7 Plus 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 Qwen3.7 Plus and 262,144 for Qwen3.8 27B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.8 27B up to 32,768, Qwen3.7 Plus up to 64,000, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.8 27B accepts text, images and video; Qwen3.7 Plus accepts text, images and video; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3.8 27B and Inkling Small publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.7 Plus is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.8 27B is the newest, released Aug 14, 2026. Inkling Small came out Jul 30, 2026; Qwen3.7 Plus came out Jun 2, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3.7 Plus 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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