Skip to main content

Model comparison

Inkling vs Qwen3.6 Plus

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 10 shared benchmark results across 6 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

Thinking Machines Lab
69/100
Margin
4.0pts
← winning
65.05/100
2 category wins4 category wins

Verified leaderboard positions: Inkling #17; Qwen3.6 Plus #14

BenchAlign evidence: Inkling not scored; Qwen3.6 Plus supported. Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. Inkling and Qwen3.6 Plus share 10 comparable benchmark results. 6 of 8 categories are comparable. 6 results are unique to Inkling; 51 to Qwen3.6 Plus.

Updated July 15, 2026
Shared results
10
Inkling only
6
Qwen3.6 Plus only
51
Comparable categories
6 / 8

Pick Inkling if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Qwen3.6 Plus only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you want the stronger reasoning-first profile.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 10 shared benchmark results across 6 evidence categories; 6 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.

Why this result

Inkling is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 69 to 63. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Inkling's sharpest advantage is in mathematics, where it averages 97.1 against 60.5. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is HLE, 46% to 28.8%. Qwen3.6 Plus does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

Qwen3.6 Plus is the reasoning model in the pair, while Inkling is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use.

Category breakdown

Exact category averages are shown below. Not measured means BenchLM does not have enough sourced public coverage for that model and category.

Category scores and score margins for Inkling and Qwen3.6 Plus
CategoryInklingΔQwen3.6 Plus
MathInkling97.1Margin 36.6Qwen3.6 Plus60.5
AgenticInkling69.4Margin 7.8Qwen3.6 Plus61.6
KnowledgeInkling51.7Margin 5.8Qwen3.6 Plus57.5
MultimodalInkling76.5Margin 3.3Qwen3.6 Plus79.8
Inst. FollowingInkling79.8Margin 2.5Qwen3.6 Plus82.3
CodingInkling68.6Margin 1.7Qwen3.6 Plus70.3
ReasoningInklingNot measuredMarginNo overlapQwen3.6 Plus62.0
MultilingualInklingNot measuredMarginNo overlapQwen3.6 Plus84.7

Decisive benchmark drivers

The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.

More
A · InklingB · Qwen3.6 Plus
  1. HLE

    Knowledge
    Source ↗
    A 46%B 28.8%
    Winner: InklingΔ 17.2
    HLE: Inkling scored 46%; Qwen3.6 Plus scored 28.8%. Inkling wins this benchmark.
  2. MMMU-Pro

    Multimodal
    Source ↗
    A 73.5%B 78.8%
    Winner: Qwen3.6 PlusΔ 5.3
    MMMU-Pro: Inkling scored 73.5%; Qwen3.6 Plus scored 78.8%. Qwen3.6 Plus wins this benchmark.
  3. IFBench

    Inst. Following
    Source ↗
    A 79.8%B 75.8%
    Winner: InklingΔ 4
    IFBench: Inkling scored 79.8%; Qwen3.6 Plus scored 75.8%. Inkling wins this benchmark.
  4. GPQA

    Knowledge
    Source ↗
    A 87.9%B 90.4%
    Winner: Qwen3.6 PlusΔ 2.5
    GPQA: Inkling scored 87.9%; Qwen3.6 Plus scored 90.4%. Qwen3.6 Plus wins this benchmark.
  5. SWE-bench Pro

    Coding
    Source ↗
    A 54.3%B 56.6%
    Winner: Qwen3.6 PlusΔ 2.3
    SWE-bench Pro: Inkling scored 54.3%; Qwen3.6 Plus scored 56.6%. Qwen3.6 Plus wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.

MetricInklingQwen3.6 PlusComparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensInkling$1.87 input / $4.68 outputQwen3.6 PlusNot availableA complete price comparison is not available.
Generation speedtokens per secondInklingNot availableQwen3.6 PlusNot availableA complete speed comparison is not available.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenInklingNot availableQwen3.6 PlusNot availableA complete latency comparison is not available.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensInkling1MQwen3.6 Plus1MListed context windows are equal.

Benchmark Deep Dive

AgenticInkling wins
BenchmarkInklingQwen3.6 PlusResult
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 63.8%61.6%Inkling leads
BrowseCompSource 77.1%Not comparable
MCP AtlasSource 74.1%48.2%Inkling leads
Design Arena Agentic Web DevSource 1258Not comparable
Claw-EvalSource 58.8%Not comparable
QwenClawBenchSource 57.2%Not comparable
τ³-bench resultsSource 70.7%Not comparable
VITA-BenchSource 44.3%Not comparable
DeepPlanningSource 41.5%Not comparable
ToolathlonSource 39.8%Not comparable
MCP-TasksSource 74.1%Not comparable
WideResearchSource 74.3%Not comparable
AA Agentic IndexSource 27.6%Not comparable
τ²-bench resultsSource 97.7%Not comparable
GDPval-AASource 31.8%Not comparable
GDPval-AASource 1135Not comparable
Gert LabsSource 50.60%Not comparable
ResearchClawBenchSource 18.0%Not comparable
CodingQwen3.6 Plus wins
BenchmarkInklingQwen3.6 PlusResult
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 77.6%78.8%Qwen3.6 Plus leads
SWE-bench ProSource 54.3%56.6%Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 63.8%Not comparable
SWE MultilingualSource 73.8%Not comparable
LiveCodeBench v6Source 87.1%Not comparable
Vibe Code BenchSource 25.56%Not comparable
AA Coding IndexSource 54.5%Not comparable
Terminal-Bench HardSource 43.9%Not comparable
AA-SciCodeSource 40.7%Not comparable
Reasoning
BenchmarkInklingQwen3.6 PlusResult
AI-NeedleSource 68.3%Not comparable
LongBench v2Source 62%Not comparable
AA-LCRSource 69.7%Not comparable
CritPtSource 2.9%Not comparable
KnowledgeQwen3.6 Plus wins
BenchmarkInklingQwen3.6 PlusResult
GPQASource 87.9%90.4%Qwen3.6 Plus leads
GPQA-DSource 87.9%Not comparable
HLESource 46%28.8%Inkling leads
HLE w/o toolsSource 30%Not comparable
SuperGPQASource 71.6%Not comparable
MMLU-ProSource 88.5%Not comparable
MMLU-ReduxSource 94.5%Not comparable
C-EvalSource 93.3%Not comparable
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource 39.6%Not comparable
AA-GPQA DiamondSource 88.2%Not comparable
AA-HLESource 25.7%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience IndexSource 2.7%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience AccuracySource 26.2%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource 32.0%Not comparable
MathInkling wins
BenchmarkInklingQwen3.6 PlusResult
AIME26Source 97.1%95.3%Inkling leads
HMMT Feb 2025Source 96.7%Not comparable
HMMT Nov 2025Source 94.6%Not comparable
HMMT Feb 2026Source 87.8%Not comparable
MMAnswerBenchSource 83.8%Not comparable
FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)Source 26.207%Not comparable
FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)Source 8.333%Not comparable
Multilingual
BenchmarkInklingQwen3.6 PlusResult
MMLU-ProXSource 84.7%Not comparable
NOVA-63Source 57.9%Not comparable
MultimodalQwen3.6 Plus wins
BenchmarkInklingQwen3.6 PlusResult
MMMU-ProSource 73.5%78.8%Qwen3.6 Plus leads
CharXivSource 82%81.5%Inkling leads
CharXiv w/o toolsSource 78.1%Not comparable
MMMUSource 86.0%Not comparable
MathVisionSource 88.0%Not comparable
VideoMMMUSource 84.0%Not comparable
ScreenSpot ProSource 68.2%Not comparable
V*Source 96.9%Not comparable
AA-MMMU-ProSource 78.0%Not comparable
Design Arena WebsiteSource 1254Not comparable
Inst. FollowingQwen3.6 Plus wins
BenchmarkInklingQwen3.6 PlusResult
IFBenchSource 79.8%75.8%Inkling leads
IFEvalSource 94.3%Not comparable
AA-IFBenchSource 75.2%Not comparable
Frequently Asked Questions (7)

Which is better, Inkling or Qwen3.6 Plus?

Inkling is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 69 to 63. The biggest single separator in this matchup is HLE, where the scores are 46% and 28.8%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Inkling or Qwen3.6 Plus?

Qwen3.6 Plus has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 57.5 versus 51.7. Inside this category, HLE is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Inkling or Qwen3.6 Plus?

Qwen3.6 Plus has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 70.3 versus 68.6. Inside this category, SWE-bench Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, Inkling or Qwen3.6 Plus?

Inkling has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 97.1 versus 60.5. Inside this category, AIME26 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, Inkling or Qwen3.6 Plus?

Inkling has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 69.4 versus 61.6. Inside this category, MCP Atlas is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, Inkling or Qwen3.6 Plus?

Qwen3.6 Plus has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 79.8 versus 76.5. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, Inkling or Qwen3.6 Plus?

Qwen3.6 Plus has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 82.3 versus 79.8. Inside this category, IFBench is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Related Comparisons

Last updated: July 15, 2026

The AI models change fast. We track them for you.

A weekly brief for engineers and researchers covering new models, ranking shifts, and pricing changes.

Free. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.