Qwen3.8 Max Preview vs Inkling Small
Inkling Small comes out ahead, 62 to 47 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 Max Preview
47/100- ECI—
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context1M
- Our pick
Thinking MachinesInkling Small
62/100- ECI150.2
- Price$0.50 / $1.20
- Context1.05M
Add a model
Make it a three-way comparison.
Inkling Small is our pick
Inkling Small is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Qwen3.8 Max Preview (47). It leads on price. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
- CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
- Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.675 · Qwen3.8 Max Preview $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextInkling SmallInkling Small 1,048,576 · Qwen3.8 Max Preview 1,000,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsQwen3.8 Max Preview: Text, Images, Video · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio
- Self-hostingInkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3.8 Max Preview | Inkling Small |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 27 | 58 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 70 | 70 |
| Context window | 20% | 60 | 61 |
| Overall | 100% | 47/100 | 62/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen3.8 Max PreviewAlibaba (Qwen) | Inkling SmallThinking Machines |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | 150.2 |
| ECI rank | — | #47 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 88.5% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 46.3% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 90.0% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | 19.1% |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $2.00 | $0.50 (best) |
| Output | $6.00 | $1.20 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $3.00 | $0.675 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 6 providers | Median of 11 providers |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 131,072 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | Yes |
| Video | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenApache-2.0 |
| API model ID | — | — |
| API providers | 6 | 11 (best) |
| Released | Jul 19, 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 Max Preview$32.00
- Inkling Small$7.40
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3.8 Max Preview or Inkling Small?
Inkling Small is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Qwen3.8 Max Preview (47). It leads on price. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.8 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 Max Preview costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (median across 6 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 $3.00 for Qwen3.8 Max Preview (4.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Qwen3.8 Max Preview has not been scored yet and Inkling Small has an ECI of 150.2.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.8 Max Preview and Inkling Small yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Both 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 Preview. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.8 Max Preview up to 131,072, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3.8 Max Preview 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?
Inkling Small publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.8 Max Preview is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Inkling Small is the newest, released Jul 30, 2026. Qwen3.8 Max Preview came out Jul 19, 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.
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