Alibaba lists 1 models and Particle Ai 1. Alibaba is cheaper on a typical model ($0.18 per 1M tokens median). Below: line-up, price tiers, the cheapest model for each capability, and what each costs for five real workloads.
| Alibaba | Particle Ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Models listed | 1 | 1 |
| Models with published pricing | 1 | 1 |
| Typical price (median, 3:1 blend per 1M) | $0.18 | $0.44 |
| Cheapest paid model | Tongyi DeepResearch 30B A3B ($0.18) | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| Longest context | Tongyi DeepResearch 30B A3B (131K) | Particle AI: Particle-1 (1.0M) |
| Free models | 0 | 0 |
| Newest model | Tongyi DeepResearch 30B A3B (2025-09-18) | Particle AI: Particle-1 (2026-10-28) |
| Price changes in the last 90 days | 0 | 0 |
For each workload: the cheapest model from each provider that can actually do it (fits the context window; tool calling required for the agent), and its monthly cost at list price.
| Workload (per month) | Alibaba | Particle Ai |
|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation | $15.75 with Tongyi DeepResearch 30B A3B | $38.75 with Particle AI: Particle-1 |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages | $15.30 with Tongyi DeepResearch 30B A3B | $40.00 with Particle AI: Particle-1 |
| Coding / tool-using agent 2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context | $16.20 with Tongyi DeepResearch 30B A3B | $42.00 with Particle AI: Particle-1 |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page | $9.90 with Tongyi DeepResearch 30B A3B | $26.00 with Particle AI: Particle-1 |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass | $4.95 with Tongyi DeepResearch 30B A3B | $13.50 with Particle AI: Particle-1 |
| You need | Alibaba | Particle Ai |
|---|---|---|
| Any model | Tongyi DeepResearch 30B A3B ($0.18) | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| With tool calling | Tongyi DeepResearch 30B A3B ($0.18) | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| With image input | none listed | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| With reasoning mode | Tongyi DeepResearch 30B A3B ($0.18) | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| 128K+ context | Tongyi DeepResearch 30B A3B ($0.18) | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| 1M+ context | none listed | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| Model type | Alibaba | Particle Ai |
|---|---|---|
| text+image->text | 0 | 1 |
| text->text | 1 | 0 |
| Price per 1M (3:1 blend) | Alibaba | Particle Ai |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 0 | 0 |
| Under $0.50 | 1 | 1 |
| $0.50 – $3 | 0 | 0 |
| $3 – $10 | 0 | 0 |
| $10 and up | 0 | 0 |
Alibaba is cheaper on a typical model: a median of $0.18 per 1M tokens (3:1 input/output) against $0.44 for Particle Ai. The cheapest paid models are Tongyi DeepResearch 30B A3B at $0.18 and Particle AI: Particle-1 at $0.44.
It depends on the job: both list 1 models, Alibaba the lower typical price, Particle Ai the longest context (1.0M tokens). The workload table above shows which wins for chat, RAG, agents, batch jobs and long documents.
Neither — both list 1 models.
Particle Ai: Alibaba's longest is Tongyi DeepResearch 30B A3B at 131K tokens; Particle Ai's is Particle AI: Particle-1 at 1.0M.
Neither lists a free model; both are pay-per-token.
Alibaba: 0 of 1 models accept images. Particle Ai: 1 of 1.