# Inkling-Small vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview

> Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.1 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.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/inkling-small-vs-qwen3-6-max-preview
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 21

## 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 48.3.
- 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.

## Snapshot

| | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Thinking Machines Lab | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 46.5 | 51.1 |
| Rank | 57 | 36 |
| Context | 524K | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.45 | $1.30 |
| Output $/M | $1.20 | $7.80 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Inkling-Small: 43.3 (#80)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 48.6 (#50)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1408 | 1482 |
| LMArena Coding | 1451 | 1472 |
| SWE-bench Verified | — | 76.7% |
| SciCode | 48.7% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Inkling-Small: —
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: —

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 4,254 |

## Reasoning

- Inkling-Small: 39.0 (#53)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 40.8 (#47)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 18% | 20% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1424 | 1457 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 6% | 19% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 150.13 | 149.27 |
| 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

- Inkling-Small: 44.9 (#65)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 52.2 (#40)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 90% | 91.1% |
| LMArena Math | 1453 | 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

- Inkling-Small: 48.3 (#71)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 57.6 (#35)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 88.5% | 87.4% |
| SimpleQA Verified | 19.1% | 52% |
| LMArena Expert | 1442 | 1476 |

## Multimodal

- Inkling-Small: 38.4 (#59)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: —

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1235 | — |

## Multilingual

- Inkling-Small: 51.7 (#102)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.3 (#46)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1400 | 1436 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1458 | 1487 |
| LMArena French | 1438 | 1449 |
| LMArena Russian | 1392 | 1444 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1426 | 1452 |
| LMArena German | 1412 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1399 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1355 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Inkling-Small: 73.9 (#112)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 75.8 (#51)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1397 | 1437 |

## Long Context

- Inkling-Small: 42.7 (#113)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 44.6 (#59)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1401 | 1457 |

## Writing & Preference

- Inkling-Small: 59.8 (#102)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 64.0 (#58)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1413 | 1447 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1330 | 1435 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1420 | 1456 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1491 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Inkling-Small better than Qwen3.6 Max Preview?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.1 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: 48.6 versus 43.3 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.