Amazon vs Scaledown

Amazon lists 5 models and Scaledown 2. Scaledown is cheaper on a typical model ($0.03 per 1M tokens median). Below: line-up, price tiers, the cheapest model for each capability, and what each costs for five real workloads.

At a glance

AmazonScaledown
Models listed52
Models with published pricing52
Typical price (median, 3:1 blend per 1M)$0.85$0.03
Cheapest paid modelAmazon: Nova Micro 1.0 ($0.06)ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03)
Longest contextAmazon: Nova 2 Lite (1M)ScaleDown: Extract (1M)
Free models00
Newest modelAmazon: Nova 2 Lite (2025-12-02)ScaleDown: Extract (2026-10-13)
Price changes in the last 90 days00

What each costs for real workloads

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)AmazonScaledown
Customer-support chatbot
50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation
$5.43 with Amazon: Nova Micro 1.0$3.00 with ScaleDown: Extract
RAG search over documents
20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages
$5.60 with Amazon: Nova Micro 1.0$4.80 with ScaleDown: Extract
Coding / tool-using agent
2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context
$5.88 with Amazon: Nova Micro 1.0no suitable model
Batch summarisation
10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page
$3.64 with Amazon: Nova Micro 1.0$3.20 with ScaleDown: Extract
Long-document analysis
500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass
$1.89 with Amazon: Nova Micro 1.0$2.00 with ScaleDown: Extract

Cheapest model for each capability

You needAmazonScaledown
Any modelAmazon: Nova Micro 1.0 ($0.06)ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03)
With tool callingAmazon: Nova Micro 1.0 ($0.06)none listed
With image inputAmazon: Nova Lite 1.0 ($0.10)ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03)
With reasoning modeAmazon: Nova 2 Lite ($0.85)none listed
128K+ contextAmazon: Nova Micro 1.0 ($0.06)ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03)
1M+ contextAmazon: Nova 2 Lite ($0.85)ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03)

Line-up by type and price tier

Model typeAmazonScaledown
text+image+file+video->text10
text+image+file->text02
text+image->text30
text->text10
Price per 1M (3:1 blend)AmazonScaledown
Free00
Under $0.5022
$0.50 – $320
$3 – $1010
$10 and up00

Frequently asked questions

How does Amazon cost compare with Scaledown cost?

Scaledown is cheaper on a typical model: a median of $0.03 per 1M tokens (3:1 input/output) against $0.85 for Amazon. The cheapest paid models are Amazon: Nova Micro 1.0 at $0.06 and ScaleDown: Extract at $0.03.

Is Amazon better than Scaledown?

It depends on the job: Amazon offers the broader line-up (5 models vs 2), Scaledown the lower typical price. The workload table above shows which wins for chat, RAG, agents, batch jobs and long documents.

Which has more models, Amazon or Scaledown?

Amazon: Amazon lists 5 models and Scaledown lists 2.

Which provider has the longest context window?

It is a tie: Amazon's longest is Amazon: Nova 2 Lite at 1M tokens; Scaledown's is ScaleDown: Extract at 1M.

Do Amazon or Scaledown offer free models?

Neither lists a free model; both are pay-per-token.

Which provider has models that can read images?

Amazon: 4 of 5 models accept images. Scaledown: 2 of 2.

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