Inkling (xhigh) vs Qwen3 Coder Next
Which is better for the money: Inkling (xhigh) by Thinking Machines or Qwen3 Coder Next by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-08-19.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Inkling (xhigh) scores 21.0 points higher (42.3 vs 21.3) but costs 2.8× as much to run the benchmark ($698 vs $250; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick Inkling (xhigh) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3 Coder Next.
| Metric | Inkling (xhigh) | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 42.3 | 21.3 | −49.6% Qwen3 Coder Next is 49.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $698.28 | $250.18 | −64.2% Qwen3 Coder Next is 64.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 35.55s | 4.97s | −86.0% Qwen3 Coder Next is 86.0% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.00 / $4.05 | $0.35 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Not reported | Not reported |
Qwen3 Coder Next vs Inkling (xhigh): 49.6% less intelligence, 64.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 86.0% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Inkling (xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Muse Spark 1.2 (xhigh) scores 56.80 for $639.
- Qwen3 Coder Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-5.6 Luna (max) scores 52.30 for $172.
Inkling (xhigh)Qwen3 Coder NextToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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