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Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

Inkling 2 Small leads the LLM Stats Score 47.1 to 17.6. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is 1.2x cheaper per token.

Thinking Machines Lab · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Inkling 2 Small leads the overall LLM Stats Score 47.1 to 17.6, ranking #41 overall.

In the 3 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Inkling 2 Small wins 3; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is roughly 1.2x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Inkling 2 Small also accepts a larger context window (256,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Inkling 2 Small

  • overall performance matters — it scores 47.1 and ranks #41 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and agents — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 3 of 3 exact shared results
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 256,000 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Nov 2026

Choose Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

  • cost matters — it's about 1.2x cheaper per token
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Inkling 2 Small
Thinking Machines Lab
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
47.1
#41
17.6
#255
Reasoning
47.8
#26
18.8
#240
Agents
33.3
#39
6.8
#175
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
3 of 3
0 of 3
Input price
$0.30 / M
$0.20 / M
Output price
$1.00 / M
$0.99 / M
Context window
256,000
131,072

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

2 shared
Index
Inkling 2 Small
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
Vision
29.2#47
11.9#130
Multimodal
28.9#44
14.5#115
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

11 reported for Inkling 2 Small · 50 for Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

3 shared

Inkling 2 Small outperforms in 3 benchmarks (CharXiv-R, GPQA, MMMU-Pro), while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is better at 0 benchmarks.

Inkling 2 Small significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Thu Nov 12 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking costs less

For input processing, Inkling 2 Small ($0.30/1M tokens) is 1.5x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking ($0.20/1M tokens).

For output processing, Inkling 2 Small ($1.00/1M tokens) is 1.0x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking ($0.99/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Inkling 2 Small is more expensive than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Thu Nov 12 2026 • llm-stats.com
Thinking Machines Lab
Inkling 2 Small
Input tokens$0.30
Output tokens$1.00
Best providerUnknown Organization
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
Input tokens$0.20
Output tokens$0.99
Best providerNovita
Notice missing or incorrect data?

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

563.0B diff

Inkling 2 Small has 563.0B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking, making it 1816.1% larger.

Thinking Machines Lab
Inkling 2 Small
594.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
31.0Bparameters
594.0B
Inkling 2 Small
31.0B
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Inkling 2 Small accepts 256,000 input tokens compared to Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking's 131,072 tokens. Only Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking specifies output context (32,768 tokens).

Thinking Machines Lab
Inkling 2 Small
Input256,000 tokens
Output- tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
Input131,072 tokens
Output32,768 tokens
Thu Nov 12 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both Inkling 2 Small and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

Inkling 2 Small

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Inkling 2 Small is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking uses Apache 2.0.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Inkling 2 Small

Proprietary

Closed source

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Inkling 2 Small was released on 2026-11-05, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.

Inkling 2 Small is 14 months newer than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking.

Inkling 2 Small

Nov 5, 2026

4 days ago

1.1yr newer
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

Sep 22, 2025

1.1 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Provider Availability

Inkling 2 Small is available from Thinking Machines Lab. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is available from Novita, DeepInfra.

Inkling 2 Small

thinking-machines logo
Unknown Organization
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.00/1M

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

novita logo
Novita
Input Price:Input: $0.20/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.00/1M
deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.29/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.99/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Inkling 2 Small and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Inkling 2 Small
✓ Preferred
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking.

Which is better, Inkling 2 Small or Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking?

Inkling 2 Small leads the LLM Stats Score 47.1 to 17.6. Inkling 2 Small is made by Thinking Machines Lab and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Inkling 2 Small compare to Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking in benchmarks?

Inkling 2 Small scores GPQA: 93.0%, BrowseComp: 90.2%, CharXiv-R: 85.6%, MCP Atlas: 85.0%, SWE-Bench Verified: 82.2%. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking scores DocVQAtest: 95.0%, ScreenSpot: 94.7%, MMLU-Redux: 90.9%, MMBench-V1.1: 88.9%, MMLU: 87.6%.

Is Inkling 2 Small cheaper than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking?

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is 1.5x cheaper for input tokens. Inkling 2 Small costs $0.30/M input and $1.00/M output via thinking-machines. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking costs $0.20/M input and $0.99/M output via novita.

What are the context window sizes for Inkling 2 Small and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking?

Inkling 2 Small supports 256K tokens and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking supports 131K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Inkling 2 Small and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (47.1 vs 17.6), context window (256K vs 131K), input pricing ($0.30 vs $0.20/M), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Inkling 2 Small and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking?

Inkling 2 Small is developed by Thinking Machines Lab and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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