Inkling-Small vs Qwen3.8-27B
Qwen3.8-27B leads the LLM Stats Score 45.2 to 38.9.
Thinking Machines Lab · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Qwen3.8-27B leads the overall LLM Stats Score 45.2 to 38.9, ranking #30 overall.
The models split the 6 individual benchmarks reported for both models evenly.
Qwen3.8-27B also accepts a larger context window (262,144 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-Small
- you want predictable pricing at $0.30/M input and $1.20/M output
Choose Qwen3.8-27B
- overall performance matters — it scores 45.2 and ranks #30 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning and agents — it leads those capability indexes
- you process long inputs — it offers a 262,144 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
24 reported for Inkling-Small · 26 for Qwen3.8-27B
Inkling-Small outperforms in 3 benchmarks (GPQA, Humanity's Last Exam, IFBench), while Qwen3.8-27B is better at 3 benchmarks (CharXiv-R, SWE-Bench Pro, Terminal-Bench 2.1).
Both models are evenly matched across the benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Inkling-Small has 248.2B more parameters than Qwen3.8-27B, making it 893.5% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Qwen3.8-27B accepts 262,144 input tokens compared to Inkling-Small's 256,000 tokens. Inkling-Small can generate longer responses up to 256,000 tokens, while Qwen3.8-27B is limited to 131,072 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Both Inkling-Small and Qwen3.8-27B support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Inkling-Small
Qwen3.8-27B
License
Usage and distribution terms
Both models are licensed under Apache 2.0.
Both models share the same licensing terms, providing consistent usage rights.
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Inkling-Small was released on 2026-07-30, while Qwen3.8-27B was released on 2026-08-14.
Qwen3.8-27B is 1 month newer than Inkling-Small.
Jul 30, 2026
1 months ago
Aug 14, 2026
3 weeks ago
2w newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Inkling-Small is available from Thinking Machines Lab. Qwen3.8-27B is available from FriendliAI.
Inkling-Small
Qwen3.8-27B
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Inkling-Small and Qwen3.8-27B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Inkling-Small vs Qwen3.8-27B.