Qwen3 235B A22B vs Inkling Small

Inkling Small leads llmrun Score 119.6 to 100.0; neither fits 24 GB.

Run Inkling Small in the cloud →

Model A · Alibaba

Qwen3 235B A22B

100.0llmrun Score

235.1B · 22.2B active · 40K context · Apache 2.0 · Apr 2025

ChatFunctions

Model B · Thinking Machines

Inkling Small

119.6llmrun Score

266.0B · 1.7B active · Apache 2.0 · Jul 2026

VisionChat

Which should you choose?

Choose Qwen3 235B A22B if you want…

Fits a Mac 128 GB
Q3_K_L · 122.4 GB; Inkling Small needs 76.3 GB at its smallest quant
Also does function-calling
Inkling Small doesn't list it

Choose Inkling Small if you want…

Higher llmrun Score
119.6 vs 100.0
Stronger at reasoning
122.6 vs 100.8
Also does vision
Qwen3 235B A22B doesn't list it
Newer release
Jul 2026 vs Apr 2025

On your hardware

Each model at its default quant (Q4_K_M), a smaller one when it must. Estimates, ±20%.

MemoryQwen3 235B A22BInkling Small

8 GB

RTX 4060 · 8 GB tier

Qwen3 235B A22B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 101.8 GB

Inkling Small

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 76.3 GB

12 GB

RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier

Qwen3 235B A22B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 101.8 GB

Inkling Small

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 76.3 GB

16 GB

RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier

Qwen3 235B A22B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 101.8 GB

Inkling Small

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 76.3 GB

24 GBreference

RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier

Qwen3 235B A22B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 101.8 GB

Inkling Small

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 76.3 GB

32 GB

RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier

Qwen3 235B A22B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 101.8 GB

Inkling Small

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 76.3 GB

48 GB

RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier

Qwen3 235B A22B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 101.8 GB

Inkling Small

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 76.3 GB

Mac 32 GB

Mac Mini M4 · Macs

Qwen3 235B A22B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 101.8 GB

Inkling Small

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 76.3 GB

Mac 64 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

Qwen3 235B A22B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 101.8 GB

Inkling Small

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 76.3 GB

Mac 128 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

Qwen3 235B A22B

Q3_K_L · ~21 tok/s

122.4 GB · up to 32Kbetter quant

Inkling Small

Q2_K · ~97 tok/s

116.2 GB · up to 32K

Reference GPU: RTX 4090. Tinted cell = the better pick on that machine (fits, more headroom, or at least 10% faster).

llmrun Score

with its 90% range · bars share one scale

Qwen3 235B A22B Inkling Small

Overall

Qwen3 235B A22B

100.097–103

Inkling Small

119.6117–122

Coding

Qwen3 235B A22B

101.396–107

Inkling Small

no data

Math

Qwen3 235B A22B

no data

Inkling Small

117.1113–121

Science

Qwen3 235B A22B

no data

Inkling Small

118.2107–129

Reasoning

Qwen3 235B A22B

100.894–108

Inkling Small

122.6119–126

Qwen3 235B A22B · #58 of 106 open models · #36 of 82 that fit ≤192 GB

Inkling Small · #16 of 106 open models · #6 of 82 that fit ≤192 GB

Benchmarks

1 shared board: Qwen3 235B A22B leads 0, Inkling Small leads 1 · Benchmarks imported Nov 2026

BoardQwen3 235B A22BInkling Small

GPQA Diamond

Qwen3 235B A22B

70.7%#34/100 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2025

Inkling Small

88.5%#15/100 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2026

21 more boards (other shared and single-model boards)

LMArena Text

Qwen3 235B A22B

1402.1#48/188 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

Inkling Small

1405.5#47/188 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

Only Qwen3 235B A22B (9)

Only Inkling Small (11)

VRAM by quantization

Memory to load the model and 2K context; below it, the total at 32K and 128K context. Lighter side in bold.

QuantQwen3 235B A22BInkling Small

Q2_K

Qwen3 235B A22B

100 GB85.7 GB file

32K 103 GB · 128K —

Inkling Small

114 GB~113.0 GB file

32K 119 GB · 128K 136 GB

Q3_K_S

Qwen3 235B A22B

103 GB101.4 GB file

32K 106 GB · 128K —

Inkling Small

not listed

Q3_K_M

Qwen3 235B A22B

115 GB112.4 GB file

32K 118 GB · 128K —

Inkling Small

130 GB119.4 GB file

32K 136 GB · 128K 153 GB

Q4_K_M

Qwen3 235B A22B

142 GB142.2 GB file

32K 145 GB · 128K —

Inkling Small

160 GB162.5 GB file

32K 166 GB · 128K 182 GB

Q5_K_M

Qwen3 235B A22B

168 GB166.8 GB file

32K 171 GB · 128K —

Inkling Small

190 GB196.1 GB file

32K 195 GB · 128K 212 GB

Q6_K

Qwen3 235B A22B

194 GB193.0 GB file

32K 197 GB · 128K —

Inkling Small

220 GB218.9 GB file

32K 225 GB · 128K 242 GB

Q8_0

Qwen3 235B A22B

236 GB249.9 GB file

32K 239 GB · 128K —

Inkling Small

267 GB280.3 GB file

32K 272 GB · 128K 289 GB

12 more quants

IQ2_XXS

Qwen3 235B A22B

not listed

Inkling Small

73.8 GB82.3 GB file

32K 79.1 GB · 128K 96.0 GB

IQ2_M

Qwen3 235B A22B

not listed

Inkling Small

90.4 GB82.4 GB file

32K 95.7 GB · 128K 113 GB

IQ3_XXS

Qwen3 235B A22B

not listed

Inkling Small

104 GB97.9 GB file

32K 109 GB · 128K 126 GB

IQ3_S

Qwen3 235B A22B

not listed

Inkling Small

114 GB107.5 GB file

32K 119 GB · 128K 136 GB

Q3_K_L

Qwen3 235B A22B

121 GB111.2 GB file

32K 124 GB · 128K —

Inkling Small

not listed

IQ4_XS

Qwen3 235B A22B

127 GB125.5 GB file

32K 130 GB · 128K —

Inkling Small

144 GB127.4 GB file

32K 149 GB · 128K 166 GB

IQ4_NL

Qwen3 235B A22B

not listed

Inkling Small

150 GB130.1 GB file

32K 156 GB · 128K 172 GB

Q4_1

Qwen3 235B A22B

133 GB147.2 GB file

32K 136 GB · 128K —

Inkling Small

not listed

Q4_K_S

Qwen3 235B A22B

133 GB133.7 GB file

32K 136 GB · 128K —

Inkling Small

150 GB152.3 GB file

32K 156 GB · 128K 172 GB

Q5_0

Qwen3 235B A22B

147 GB161.9 GB file

32K 150 GB · 128K —

Inkling Small

not listed

Q5_K_S

Qwen3 235B A22B

162 GB161.9 GB file

32K 165 GB · 128K —

Inkling Small

184 GB184.2 GB file

32K 189 GB · 128K 206 GB

BF16

Qwen3 235B A22B

471 GB470.3 GB file

32K 474 GB · 128K —

Inkling Small

533 GB527.4 GB file

32K 538 GB · 128K 555 GB

How to run each

Qwen3 235B A22B

Ollama · Q4_K_M

$ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Qwen3-235B-A22B-GGUF:Q4_K_M

All ways to run Qwen3 235B A22B →

Inkling Small

Ollama · Q4_K_M

$ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Inkling-Small-GGUF:Q4_K_M

All ways to run Inkling Small →

Specifications

Specifications of Qwen3 235B A22B and Inkling Small
Spec	Qwen3 235B A22B	Inkling Small
Publisher	Alibaba	Thinking Machines
Parameters	235.1B	266.0B
Active parameters	22B per token	1.7B per token
Architecture	Qwen3MoeForCausalLM	InklingForConditionalGeneration
Context	40K tokens	—
Modalities	Chat, Function-calling	Vision, Chat
License	Apache 2.0	Apache 2.0
Released	Apr 2025	Jul 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Qwen3 235B A22B or Inkling Small?

Inkling Small leads llmrun Score 119.6 to 100.0; neither fits 24 GB. Choose Qwen3 235B A22B for fits a Mac 128 GB and also does function-calling; choose Inkling Small for higher llmrun Score and stronger at reasoning.

Which needs less VRAM, Qwen3 235B A22B or Inkling Small?

At Q4_K_M, Qwen3 235B A22B requires 141.6 GB while Inkling Small needs 160.2 GB, making Qwen3 235B A22B the easier model to run on your local setup.

Can I run Qwen3 235B A22B or Inkling Small on a 16 GB GPU?

Qwen3 235B A22B does not fit (smallest quant needs 101.8 GB); Inkling Small does not fit (smallest quant needs 76.3 GB).