Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3.8 Max 0902: which is cheaper?

Qwen3.8 Max 0902 leads the intelligence index 33.7 to 30.6. Inkling 2 Small costs 84% less on blended price. Benchmarks, sample bills, speed and a verdict.

Metric	Inkling 2 Small	Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Intelligence Index	30.6	33.7
Input price (per 1M tokens)	$0.30	$2.00
Output price (per 1M tokens)	$1.00	$6.00
Output speed (tokens/s)	139	38
Time to first token	2.2s	3.2s
Release date	2026-11-05	2026-09-02

Metric

Inkling 2 Small

Qwen3.8 Max (0902)

Intelligence Index

30.6

33.7

Input price (per 1M tokens)

$0.30

$2.00

Output price (per 1M tokens)

$1.00

$6.00

Output speed (tokens/s)

139

Time to first token

2.2s

3.2s

Release date

2026-11-05

2026-09-02

Inkling 2 Small (Thinking Machines) and Qwen3.8 Max (0902) (Alibaba) meet here on their recorded benchmark, price and speed data. The sharpest difference is price: Inkling 2 Small costs $1.00 per million output tokens, against $6.00 for Qwen3.8 Max 0902. The figures come from tracked catalogue data, not from our own testing, so treat them as a starting point for a trial on your tasks.

What they cost

The list prices are $0.30 in and $1.00 out for Inkling 2 Small, and $2.00 in and $6.00 out for Qwen3.8 Max 0902, per million tokens. That makes Inkling 2 Small's output 83% cheaper.

Take 1 million input tokens and 200,000 output tokens: that comes to $0.50 on Inkling 2 Small and $3.20 on Qwen3.8 Max 0902. Scale it up to classifying 100,000 short messages at 150 input tokens and 5 output tokens each and the bill is $5.00 for Inkling 2 Small against $33.00 for Qwen3.8 Max 0902. On a 3:1 blend of input to output tokens, that works out to $0.475 versus $3.00 per million.

Release timing

Inkling 2 Small arrived on November 5, 2026, about 2 months after Qwen3.8 Max 0902 (September 2, 2026).

The headline benchmark

Inkling 2 Small records 30.6 on the intelligence index and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 records 33.7. That is a clear margin for an index that averages many evaluations. In relative terms, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 scores 10% higher.

For context, that places Inkling 2 Small 52nd and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 44th out of 109 scored models still on offer.

The catalogue does not yet split either model's score into coding and math indexes.

Is the price in proportion?

A blunt value measure, blended price over intelligence score, puts Inkling 2 Small at $0.016 and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 at $0.089 per point. Qwen3.8 Max 0902 costs 5.7 times as much per point, which is the price of its lead.

Inkling 2 Small is the faster writer

Once a response is under way, Inkling 2 Small produces roughly 139 tokens per second against 38 tokens per second for Qwen3.8 Max 0902. On long outputs, that is a real advantage for Inkling 2 Small. The wait for the first token averages 2.2 seconds on Inkling 2 Small against 3.2 seconds on Qwen3.8 Max 0902. Inkling 2 Small gets to its first token 1.4 times as fast.

For an 800-token response, first token plus generation comes to roughly 8.0 seconds on Inkling 2 Small and 24 seconds on Qwen3.8 Max 0902.

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.8 Max 0902 better than Inkling 2 Small?

Not across the board: Qwen3.8 Max 0902 scores higher on the intelligence index, 33.7 to 30.6; Inkling 2 Small is 84% cheaper on blended price; and Inkling 2 Small streams output 3.6 times as fast.

Who makes Inkling 2 Small and Qwen3.8 Max 0902?

Inkling 2 Small is made by Thinking Machines and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 by Alibaba. Inkling 2 Small was released on November 5, 2026 and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 on September 2, 2026.

Which is newer, Inkling 2 Small or Qwen3.8 Max 0902?

Inkling 2 Small is newer. It was released on November 5, 2026, about 2 months after Qwen3.8 Max 0902 (September 2, 2026).

Was this comparison tested by hand?

The figures are the recorded benchmark, price and speed data in Franklin AI's model catalogue. This page is written from that data automatically; neither model was tested by hand for it.

Which model has lower latency?

Inkling 2 Small generates output faster, at 139 tokens per second against 38 tokens per second. Inkling 2 Small reaches its first token sooner (2.2 seconds against 3.2 seconds).

Final whistle

In one line: Inkling 2 Small is the stronger all-round pick on this data, while Qwen3.8 Max 0902 makes sense in narrower cases. Pick Inkling 2 Small if cost matters ($1.00 against $6.00 per million output tokens) and long outputs need to finish quickly. Pick Qwen3.8 Max 0902 if you need the higher overall score (33.7 against 30.6).

Where the numbers come from

The scores, speed and prices in this comparison come from independent third-party model evaluations that Franklin AI syncs each day, and the article was written from a snapshot of them. For the latest results, open the Inkling 2 Small and Qwen3.8 Max (0902) pages. The AI Benchmark methodology explains how that data is collected and shown.