Qwen3.6 Plus vs Inkling
Updated October 21, 2026. 74 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
Decision reading
Pick Inkling for coding: it scores 49.7 on the Vibe Coding Index against 37.4 for Qwen3.6 Plus.
Pick Qwen3.6 Plus when output tokens cost 2.1x less, or when the context window is larger, 1M against 524K tokens.
- Shared results
- 74
- Qwen3.6 Plus only
- 9
- Inkling only
- 28
- Like-for-like categories
- 8 of 9
Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results only one model has describe coverage, not superiority.
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, four public coding benchmarks
Inkling
Inkling scores 49.7 against 37.4.
1 and 2 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Qwen3.6 Plus
Qwen3.6 Plus leads, 27.0 against 25.0.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Inkling has a AA Agentic Index result, 22.5.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Qwen3.6 Plus
Qwen3.6 Plus leads, 87.4% against 87.1%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
No call
Only Qwen3.6 Plus has a AIME result, 94.6%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Qwen3.6 Plus
Qwen3.6 Plus leads, 87.7% against 86.3%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Qwen3.6 Plus
Qwen3.6 Plus leads, 1243 against 1224.
Same board, both measured
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Inkling has a Vals Index result, 29.0%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Qwen3.6 Plus
Qwen3.6 Plus takes 1M tokens against 524K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3.6 Plus
Qwen3.6 Plus $0.0013, Inkling $0.0030 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
Inkling
Qwen3.6 Plus $1.19, Inkling $0.76.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- Qwen3.6 Plus 37.4 from 1 benchmark, Inkling 49.7 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 8.1 points apart on average over 4 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Legal Research Bench (Vals AI): Qwen3.6 Plus 14.9% against Inkling 28.4%, 13.5 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Qwen3.6 Plus $1.95 against Inkling $4.05 per million output tokens, 2.1x apart.
- Context window
- Qwen3.6 Plus takes 1M 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 Plus | Bars | Inkling | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 8 | 4 | 1 tie | |
| Intelligence | 1 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 4 | ||
| Reasoning | 5 | 4 | ||
| Math | 2 | 2 | ||
| Knowledge | 4 | 7 | ||
| Web design | 8 | 0 | ||
| General | 11 | 12 | ||
| All shared boards | 39 | 34 | 1 tie |
CodingLike-for-likeFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index84
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 64.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1461 | 1414 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| AA Coding Index | 54.5 | 52.1 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 86.0% | 85.5% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 73.4% | 77.6% | Inkling |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 25.6% | 19.2% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 11.1% | 11.8% | Inkling |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | 0.0% | Tie |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 14.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 53.2% | 47.6% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| 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 | Not measured | 47.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 43.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 Plus 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 | 670.1 | 946.0 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1467 | 1466 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1462 | 1465 | Inkling |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1454 | 1404 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1463 | 1399 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1472 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 27.0 | 25.0 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 147.3 | 148.4 | Inkling |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 22.5 | Only Inkling measured |
| 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) | 40.9% | 46.6% | Inkling |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 7.7% | 15.3% | Inkling |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 14.9% | 28.4% | Inkling |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 3.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 32.9% | 38.4% | Inkling |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 97.7% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 33.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $5,115 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 25 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index54
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 87.4% | 87.1% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 78.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 84.2% | 78.5% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 88.2% | 87.2% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 27.8% | 31.9% | Inkling |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 88.4% | 88.3% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| 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 | 14.0% | 21.0% | Inkling |
| Mystery game puzzles | 12.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1448 | 1451 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1454 | 1466 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1455 | 1448 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index22
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 94.6% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 93.3% | 88.9% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 38.2% | 33.3% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 4.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1449 | 1479 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1448 | 1460 | Inkling |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index47
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 87.7% | 86.3% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 84.2% | 83.0% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 51.5% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 61.9% | 68.6% | Inkling |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 74.7% | 75.3% | Inkling |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.0% | 64.0% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 36.9% | 41.2% | Inkling |
| SimpleQA Verified | 44.1% | 40.3% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| LMArena Text: science | 1439 | 1455 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1442 | 1447 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1437 | 1448 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1430 | 1438 | Inkling |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index80
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1243 | 1224 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1233 | 1200 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1211 | 1166 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1228 | 1160 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1202 | 1161 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1236 | 1206 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1160 | 1109 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1115 | 1089 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 58.3% | Only Inkling measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1112
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | 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) | 44.9% | 36.5% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 77.0% | 85.4% | Inkling |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 51.5% | 49.4% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| IFBench | 75.2% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 78.3% | 77.3% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| DTBench | 81.9% | 87.5% | Inkling |
| LMCA | 33.1% | 37.6% | Inkling |
| CL-bench | 20.3% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text | 1436 | 1442 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1424 | 1425 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1404 | 1390 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| LMArena Text: English | 1445 | 1442 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1424 | 1434 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1477 | 1493 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: German | 1451 | 1445 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1390 | 1429 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1379 | 1403 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: French | 1455 | 1455 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1432 | 1449 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1434 | 1430 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1433 | 1450 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1438 | 1437 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1439 | 1435 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1418 | 1404 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1402 | 1394 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Neither model has a result on the other 18 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | 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 Plus costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3.6 Plus costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3.6 Plus 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 Plus | Thinking Machines Inkling |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Qwen | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | April 2, 2026 | July 17, 2026 |
| Context window | 1M | 524K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.325 | $1.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.95 | $4.05 |
| Coding index | 37.4 | 49.7 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | $1.19 | $0.76 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Qwen3.6 Plus better than Inkling for coding?
Pick Inkling for coding: it scores 49.7 on the Vibe Coding Index against 37.4 for Qwen3.6 Plus. Pick Qwen3.6 Plus when output tokens cost 2.1x less, or when the context window is larger, 1M against 524K tokens.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 Plus or Inkling?
Qwen3.6 Plus costs $0.325 per million input tokens and $1.95 per million output tokens; Inkling costs $1.00 and $4.05. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Qwen3.6 Plus costs $1.19 and Inkling $0.76.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.6 Plus or Inkling?
Qwen3.6 Plus, with 1M tokens against 524K.
How many benchmarks is the Qwen3.6 Plus vs Inkling comparison based on?
74 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Qwen3.6 Plus's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and Inkling's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.