# Inkling-Small vs Qwen Max

> Inkling-Small is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.5 to 34.4 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/inkling-small-vs-qwen-max
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 19

## Summary

- They share 19 benchmarks with published results for both. Inkling-Small scores higher in 8 categories and Qwen Max in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Inkling-Small leads 44.9 to 21.0.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 90% for Inkling-Small and 16.1% for Qwen Max.
- Inkling-Small is cheaper at $0.45 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1.60 / $6.40 for Qwen Max.
- Inkling-Small accepts more context: 524K tokens versus 33K.
- Inkling-Small has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Inkling-Small | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Thinking Machines Lab | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 46.5 | 34.4 |
| Rank | 57 | 226 |
| Context | 524K | 33K |
| Input $/M | $0.45 | $1.60 |
| Output $/M | $1.20 | $6.40 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Inkling-Small: 43.3 (#80)
- Qwen Max: 30.3 (#288)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1451 | 1288 |
| Aider Polyglot | — | 21.8% |
| LMArena WebDev | 1408 | — |
| SciCode | 48.7% | — |

## Reasoning

- Inkling-Small: 39.0 (#53)
- Qwen Max: 24.1 (#154)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1424 | 1270 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 40.1% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 84% | — |
| CritPt | 8.3% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 18% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 6% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 150.13 | — |

## Math

- Inkling-Small: 44.9 (#65)
- Qwen Max: 21.0 (#272)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 90% | 16.1% |
| LMArena Math | 1453 | 1275 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 46.3% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 17.1% | — |
| ProofBench | 6% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 67.2% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 1% |

## Knowledge

- Inkling-Small: 48.3 (#71)
- Qwen Max: 30.3 (#222)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 88.5% | 56.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1442 | 1248 |
| SimpleQA Verified | 19.1% | — |

## Multimodal

- Inkling-Small: 38.4 (#59)
- Qwen Max: —

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1235 | — |

## Multilingual

- Inkling-Small: 51.7 (#102)
- Qwen Max: 42.0 (#197)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1400 | 1263 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1458 | 1254 |
| LMArena French | 1438 | 1329 |
| LMArena German | 1412 | 1254 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1399 | 1205 |
| LMArena Korean | 1355 | 1141 |
| LMArena Russian | 1392 | 1274 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1426 | 1290 |

## Instruction Following

- Inkling-Small: 73.9 (#112)
- Qwen Max: 66.7 (#203)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1397 | 1262 |

## Long Context

- Inkling-Small: 42.7 (#113)
- Qwen Max: 39.4 (#175)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1401 | 1289 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |

## Writing & Preference

- Inkling-Small: 59.8 (#102)
- Qwen Max: 48.0 (#200)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1413 | 1282 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1330 | 1248 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1420 | 1277 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1491 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Inkling-Small better than Qwen Max?

Inkling-Small is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.5 to 34.4 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Inkling-Small or Qwen Max?

Inkling-Small is cheaper. It lists at $0.45 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Qwen Max lists at $1.60 and $6.40.

### Is Inkling-Small or Qwen Max better for coding?

Inkling-Small scores higher on coding benchmarks: 43.3 versus 30.3 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Inkling-Small does, with 524K tokens against 33K.

### How many benchmarks do Inkling-Small and Qwen Max share?

19 benchmarks have published results for both models. Inkling-Small has 33 scored results on Noometry and Qwen Max has 23.