Model comparison
Inkling-Small vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.5 to 46.5 on the Noometry Index. Inkling-Small costs 4.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Max Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 21 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 21 benchmarks with published results for both. Inkling-Small scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.6 Max Preview in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads 57.6 to 48.2.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is SimpleQA Verified: 19.1% for Inkling-Small and 52% for Qwen3.6 Max Preview.
- Inkling-Small is cheaper at $0.45 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1.30 / $7.80 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview.
- Inkling-Small accepts more context: 524K tokens versus 262K.
- Inkling-Small has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Thinking Machines Lab | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 46.5 | 51.5 |
| Released | 2026-07-15 | 2026-04-20 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 524K | 262K |
| Max output | 1.05M | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.45 | $1.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.20 | $7.80 |
| Results tracked | 33 | 29 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Inkling-Small: 43.6 (#85), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 48.7 (#54)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1409 | 1482 |
| LMArena Coding | 1451 | 1471 |
| SWE-bench Verified | — | 76.7% |
| SciCode | 48.7% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Inkling-Small: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: —
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 4,254 |
Reasoning Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Inkling-Small: 38.6 (#63), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 41.7 (#53)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 18% | 20% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1423 | 1457 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 6% | 19% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 150.15 | 149.24 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 40.1% | — |
| SimpleBench | — | 63% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 74.1% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 84% | — |
| CritPt | 8.3% | — |
| DTBench | — | 87.2% |
| LMCA | — | 42.5% |
Math Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Inkling-Small: 45.1 (#77), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.1 (#46)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 90% | 91.1% |
| LMArena Math | 1459 | 1465 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 46.3% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 17.1% | — |
| ProofBench | 6% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 23.1% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 4.2% |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Inkling-Small: 48.2 (#77), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 57.6 (#39)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 88.5% | 87.4% |
| SimpleQA Verified | 19.1% | 52% |
| LMArena Expert | 1442 | 1478 |
Multimodal Not comparable
Inkling-Small: 39.1 (#62), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: —
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1235 | — |
Multilingual Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Inkling-Small: 51.7 (#104), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.2 (#48)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1402 | 1437 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1465 | 1487 |
| LMArena French | 1436 | 1449 |
| LMArena Russian | 1391 | 1445 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1428 | 1454 |
| LMArena German | 1405 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1405 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1363 | — |
Instruction Following Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Inkling-Small: 73.8 (#114), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 75.7 (#55)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1399 | 1438 |
Long Context Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Inkling-Small: 42.7 (#118), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 44.6 (#61)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1401 | 1457 |
Writing & Preference Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Inkling-Small: 59.6 (#107), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 63.8 (#60)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1414 | 1447 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1435 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1418 | 1456 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1491 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Inkling-Small better than Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.5 to 46.5 on the Noometry Index. Inkling-Small costs 4.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Max Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Inkling-Small or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Inkling-Small is cheaper. It lists at $0.45 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Max Preview lists at $1.30 and $7.80.
Is Inkling-Small or Qwen3.6 Max Preview better for coding?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.7 versus 43.6 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Inkling-Small does, with 524K tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks do Inkling-Small and Qwen3.6 Max Preview share?
21 benchmarks have published results for both models. Inkling-Small has 33 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Max Preview has 29.