Inkling-Small vs Qwen3.8 Max: Specs & Benchmark Comparison
Inkling-Small is developed by Thinking Machines Lab, while Qwen3.8 Max comes from Alibaba. Inkling-Small was released in July 2026, and Qwen3.8 Max followed a month later in August 2026. Qwen3.8 Max is the larger model at roughly 2.4 trillion parameters, against 276 billion for Inkling-Small.
We have 24 benchmark results for Inkling-Small and 2 benchmark results for Qwen3.8 Max, but they were measured on different benchmarks, so there is no like-for-like scoreboard.
Inkling-Small is the cheaper API at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens, roughly 8 times cheaper than Qwen3.8 Max at $2.50 and $6.25. Qwen3.8 Max takes the larger context window at 1M tokens, compared with 256K for Inkling-Small. Inkling-Small accepts text, images, and audio as input, while Qwen3.8 Max accepts text and images. On tooling, only Qwen3.8 Max supports function calling and only Qwen3.8 Max offers structured output.
| Characteristic | Inkling-Small | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Thinking Machines Lab | Alibaba |
| Release Date | July 30, 2026 | August 2, 2026 |
| Parameters | 276B | 2.4T |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Context (input) | 256K | 1.0M |
| Context (output) | 256K | 131K |
| Input Price / 1M | $0.30 | $2.50 |
| Output Price / 1M | $1.20 | $6.25 |
| Average Score | 60.3% | 93.0% |
Verdict
Both models show equal results — the choice depends on your specific use case.
Both models show comparable average scores: Inkling-Small — 0.6, Qwen3.8 Max — 0.9.
Inkling-Small is 5.8x cheaper: input $0.30/1M vs $2.50/1M tokens.
Qwen3.8 Max supports a larger context: 1M vs 256K tokens.
Both models were released around the same time: 7/30/2026 and 8/2/2026.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — Inkling-Small or Qwen3.8 Max?
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The Inkling-Small and Qwen3.8 Max comparison is updated for 2026. Data includes benchmark results, API pricing, context window size and other specifications. For more detailed information, visit the Inkling-Small or Qwen3.8 Max page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.