Qwen3.6 27B vs Inkling
Qwen3.6 27B leads Inkling on coding, 36.8 to 31.5 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Qwen3.6 27B costs 1.5x less per output token ($2.70 vs $4.05 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 19 benchmarks have a result for both.
Qwen3.6 27B or Inkling: which to pick
Pick Qwen3.6 27B for coding: it scores 36.8 on the Vibe Coding Index against 31.5 for Inkling, though on 2 benchmarks against 6.
Pick Inkling for a lower cost per solved task ($0.76 against $1.30) and a larger context window (524K against 262K tokens).
- Shared results
- 19
- Qwen3.6 27B only
- 5
- Inkling only
- 83
- Like-for-like categories
- 7 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
Qwen3.6 27B
Qwen3.6 27B scores 36.8 against 31.5.
2 and 6 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Inkling
Inkling leads, 25.0 against 21.4.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Inkling
Inkling leads, 22.5 against 18.5.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Inkling has a GPQA Diamond result, 87.1%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Inkling has a MMLU Pro result, 86.3%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Inkling has a Design Arena: websites result, 1224.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Inkling has a Vals Index result, 29.0%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Inkling
Inkling takes 524K tokens against 262K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3.6 27B
Qwen3.6 27B $0.0018, Inkling $0.0030 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
Inkling
Qwen3.6 27B $1.30, Inkling $0.76.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- Qwen3.6 27B 36.8 from 2 benchmarks, Inkling 31.5 from 6 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- General, 5.4 points apart on average over 4 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- DTBench: Qwen3.6 27B 78.1% against Inkling 87.5%, 9.3 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Qwen3.6 27B $2.70 against Inkling $4.05 per million output tokens, 1.5x apart.
- Context window
- Qwen3.6 27B takes 262K tokens, Inkling 524K.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Qwen3.6 27B | Bars | Inkling | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 1 | 3 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 2 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 3 | ||
| Math | 2 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 1 | 2 | ||
| General | 1 | 2 | 1 tie | |
| All shared boards | 5 | 13 | 1 tie |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index13
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 64.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1414 | Only Inkling measured |
| AA Coding Index | 53.7 | 52.1 | Qwen3.6 27B |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 70.0% | 77.6% | Inkling |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 11.9% | 19.2% | Inkling |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 11.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 14.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 47.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 7.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 26.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 66.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| SciCode | 42.8% | 47.0% | Inkling |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 34.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| FrontierCode | Not measured | 14.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierSWE | Not measured | 4.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 32.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 946.0 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1466 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1465 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1404 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1399 | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 21.4 | 25.0 | Inkling |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.2 | 148.4 | Inkling |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 18.5 | 22.5 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | Not measured | 1196 | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench research | Not measured | 59.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench browser | Not measured | 16.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | Not measured | 14.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 46.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 15.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 28.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 3.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 38.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 94.2% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 33.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 28 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 87.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 78.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | Not measured | 78.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 84.2% | 87.2% | Inkling |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 23.1% | 31.9% | Inkling |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 85.9% | 88.3% | Inkling |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 79.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 36.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 50.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 21.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 7.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1451 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1466 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1448 | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 91.1% | 88.9% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 35.1% | 33.3% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 4.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1479 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1460 | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 86.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 83.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 53.2% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 62.3% | 68.6% | Inkling |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 71.3% | 75.3% | Inkling |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.3% | 64.0% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 41.2% | Only Inkling measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 40.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1455 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1447 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1448 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1438 | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 1224 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1198 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 1165 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1156 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | Not measured | 1160 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 1205 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | Not measured | 1108 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | Not measured | 1089 | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 58.3% | Only Inkling measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 29.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | Not measured | 72.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 58.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 45.6% | 36.5% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | Not measured | 49.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| IFBench | 67.6% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 77.3% | 77.3% | Tie |
| DTBench | 78.1% | 87.5% | Inkling |
| LMCA | 34.5% | 37.6% | Inkling |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1442 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1425 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1390 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1442 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1434 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1493 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1445 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1429 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1403 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1455 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1449 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1430 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1450 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1437 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1435 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1404 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1394 | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3.6 27B costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3.6 27B costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3.6 27B costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | Qwen3.6 27B | Thinking Machines Inkling |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Qwen | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | April 27, 2026 | July 17, 2026 |
| Context window | 262K | 524K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.45 | $0.975 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.70 | $4.05 |
| Coding index | 36.8 | 31.5 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 6 |
| Cost per solved task | $1.30 | $0.76 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Qwen3.6 27B better than Inkling for coding?
Pick Qwen3.6 27B for coding: it scores 36.8 on the Vibe Coding Index against 31.5 for Inkling, though on 2 benchmarks against 6. Pick Inkling for a lower cost per solved task ($0.76 against $1.30) and a larger context window (524K against 262K tokens).
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 27B or Inkling?
Qwen3.6 27B costs $0.45 per million input tokens and $2.70 per million output tokens; Inkling costs $0.975 and $4.05. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Qwen3.6 27B costs $1.30 and Inkling $0.76.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.6 27B or Inkling?
Inkling, with 524K tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks is the Qwen3.6 27B vs Inkling comparison based on?
19 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Qwen3.6 27B's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and Inkling's on 6. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.