Liquid vs Scaledown

Liquid lists 7 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

LiquidScaledown
Models listed72
Models with published pricing72
Typical price (median, 3:1 blend per 1M)$0.03$0.03
Cheapest paid modelLiquidAI: LFM2-2.6B ($0.01)ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03)
Longest contextLiquidAI: LFM2.5-24B-A2B (128K)ScaleDown: Extract (1M)
Free models30
Newest modelLiquidAI: LFM2.5-24B-A2B (2026-10-13)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)LiquidScaledown
Customer-support chatbot
50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation
$1.15 with LiquidAI: LFM2-2.6B$3.00 with ScaleDown: Extract
RAG search over documents
20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages
$1.40 with LiquidAI: LFM2-2.6B$4.80 with ScaleDown: Extract
Coding / tool-using agent
2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context
$14.40 with LiquidAI: LFM2.5-24B-A2Bno suitable model
Batch summarisation
10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page
$0.92 with LiquidAI: LFM2-2.6B$3.20 with ScaleDown: Extract
Long-document analysis
500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass
$3.20 with LiquidAI: LFM2.5-24B-A2B$2.00 with ScaleDown: Extract

Cheapest model for each capability

You needLiquidScaledown
Any modelLiquidAI: LFM2-2.6B ($0.01)ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03)
With tool callingLiquidAI: LFM2.5-24B-A2B ($0.21)none listed
With image inputnone listedScaleDown: Extract ($0.03)
With reasoning modeLiquidAI: LFM2.5-24B-A2B ($0.21)none listed
128K+ contextLiquidAI: LFM2.5-24B-A2B ($0.21)ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03)
1M+ contextnone listedScaleDown: Extract ($0.03)

Line-up by type and price tier

Model typeLiquidScaledown
text+image+file->text02
text->text70
Price per 1M (3:1 blend)LiquidScaledown
Free30
Under $0.5042
$0.50 – $300
$3 – $1000
$10 and up00

Frequently asked questions

How does Liquid 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 $0.03 for Liquid. The cheapest paid models are LiquidAI: LFM2-2.6B at $0.01 and ScaleDown: Extract at $0.03.

Is Liquid better than Scaledown?

It depends on the job: Liquid offers the broader line-up (7 models vs 2), Scaledown the lower typical price, Scaledown the longest context (1M tokens). The workload table above shows which wins for chat, RAG, agents, batch jobs and long documents.

Which has more models, Liquid or Scaledown?

Liquid: Liquid lists 7 models and Scaledown lists 2.

Which provider has the longest context window?

Scaledown: Liquid's longest is LiquidAI: LFM2.5-24B-A2B at 128K tokens; Scaledown's is ScaleDown: Extract at 1M.

Do Liquid or Scaledown offer free models?

Liquid: 3 free models (e.g. LiquidAI: LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct (free)). Scaledown: none.

Which provider has models that can read images?

Liquid: 0 of 7 models accept images. Scaledown: 2 of 2.

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