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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.8 Max vs Inkling Small

Too close to call on our weighted score (Inkling Small 70, Qwen3.8 Max 69). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.8 Max

    Released Aug 3, 2026

    69/100
    • ECI156.6
    • Price$2.00 / $6.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.8 Max

  2. Thinking Machines

    Inkling Small

    Released Jul 30, 2026

    70/100
    • ECI150.2
    • Price$0.50 / $1.20
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Inkling Small

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01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Inkling Small 70/100, Qwen3.8 Max 69/100), 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
  • Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.675 · Qwen3.8 Max $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextInkling SmallInkling Small 1,048,576 · Qwen3.8 Max 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.8 MaxQwen3.8 Max: Text, Images, PDFs, Video · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio
  • Self-hostingInkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.8 MaxInkling Small
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%8678
Price25%2758
Inputs & features15%9070
Context window10%6061
Overall100%69/10070/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Qwen3.8 Max vs Inkling Small specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)Inkling SmallThinking Machines
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)156.6 (best)150.2
ECI rank#20 of 148 (best)#47 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions92.7% (best)88.5%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics74.7% (best)46.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics99.4% (best)90.0%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions45.8% (best)19.1%
Price per million tokens
Input$2.00$0.50 (best)
Output$6.00$1.20 (best)
Cached input$0.25—
Blended (3:1)$3.00$0.675 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 11 providers
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Max output131,072 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsYesNo
AudioNoYes
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · xhighYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenApache-2.0
API model IDqwen3.8-max—
API providers25 (best)11
ReleasedAug 3, 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 Max$32.00
  • Inkling Small$7.40
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: 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), 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 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 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 $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) and Inkling Small 150.2 (#47 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (154.5–158.8 vs 147.5–152.1), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.8 Max 92.7%, Inkling Small 88.5%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Qwen3.8 Max 74.7%, Inkling Small 46.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%, Inkling Small 90.0%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.8 Max 45.8%, Inkling Small 19.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for 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. 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. Maximum output per response: 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 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?

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

Which is newer?

Qwen3.8 Max is the newest, released 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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