Qwen3.8 27B vs Qwen3.8 Max vs Inkling Small
Too close to call on our weighted score (Inkling Small 70, Qwen3.8 Max 69, Qwen3.8 27B 67). The right pick depends on what you value most.
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 27B
67/100- ECI149.4
- Price$0.40 / $2.50
- Context262K
- Alibaba (Qwen)
Qwen3.8 Max
69/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context1M
Thinking MachinesInkling Small
70/100- ECI150.2
- Price$0.50 / $1.20
- Context1.05M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Inkling Small 70/100, Qwen3.8 Max 69/100, Qwen3.8 27B 67/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.8 Max for raw capability, Inkling Small on price and Inkling Small for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityQwen3.8 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 · Inkling Small 150.2 · Qwen3.8 27B 149.4
- Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.675 · Qwen3.8 27B $0.925 · Qwen3.8 Max $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextInkling SmallInkling Small 1,048,576 · Qwen3.8 Max 1,000,000 · Qwen3.8 27B 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.8 MaxQwen3.8 27B: Text, Images, Video · Qwen3.8 Max: Text, Images, PDFs, Video · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio
- Self-hostingQwen3.8 27B and Inkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3.8 27B | Qwen3.8 Max | Inkling Small |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 77 | 86 | 78 |
| Price | 25% | 51 | 27 | 58 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 80 | 90 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 37 | 60 | 61 |
| Overall | 100% | 67/100 | 69/100 | 70/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen3.8 27BAlibaba (Qwen) | Qwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) | Inkling SmallThinking Machines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 149.4 | 156.6 (best) | 150.2 |
| ECI rank | #53 of 148 | #20 of 148 (best) | #47 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 92.7% (best) | 88.5% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 74.7% (best) | 46.3% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 99.4% (best) | 90.0% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | 45.8% (best) | 19.1% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.40 (best) | $2.00 | $0.50 |
| Output | $2.50 | $6.00 | $1.20 (best) |
| Cached input | — | $0.25 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.925 | $3.00 | $0.675 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 39 providers | Official Alibaba API | Median of 11 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 32,768 tokens | 131,072 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No | Yes |
| Video | Yes | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yeslow · medium · xhigh | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | OpenApache-2.0 |
| API model ID | — | qwen3.8-max | — |
| API providers | 41 (best) | 25 | 11 |
| Released | Aug 14, 2026 | Aug 3, 2026 | Jul 30, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | — | — |
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
- Qwen3.8 Max$32.00
- Inkling Small$7.40
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3.8 27B, Qwen3.8 Max or Inkling Small?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Inkling Small 70/100, Qwen3.8 Max 69/100, Qwen3.8 27B 67/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.8 Max for raw capability, Inkling Small on price and Inkling Small for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.8 27B, Qwen3.8 Max 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); Qwen3.8 Max costs $2.00 input / $6.00 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 $3.00 for Qwen3.8 Max (4.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Qwen3.8 Max scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 (#20 of 148), Inkling Small 150.2 (#47 of 148) and Qwen3.8 27B 149.4 (#53 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (154.5–158.8 vs 147.5–152.1), so the gap is a real one.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.8 27B, Qwen3.8 Max and Inkling Small yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.8 Max 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 Qwen3.8 Max and 262,144 for Qwen3.8 27B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.8 27B up to 32,768, Qwen3.8 Max up to 131,072, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3.8 27B accepts text, images and video; Qwen3.8 Max accepts text, images, PDFs and video; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio. Qwen3.8 Max 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; Qwen3.8 Max is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen3.8 27B is the newest, released Aug 14, 2026. Qwen3.8 Max came out Aug 3, 2026; Inkling Small came out Jul 30, 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.
