Microsoft lists 2 models and Moondream 2. Microsoft is cheaper on a typical model ($0.35 per 1M tokens median). Below: line-up, price tiers, the cheapest model for each capability, and what each costs for five real workloads.
| Microsoft | Moondream | |
|---|---|---|
| Models listed | 2 | 2 |
| Models with published pricing | 2 | 2 |
| Typical price (median, 3:1 blend per 1M) | $0.35 | $0.85 |
| Cheapest paid model | Microsoft: Phi 4 ($0.09) | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview ($0.85) |
| Longest context | WizardLM-2 8x22B (66K) | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview (32K) |
| Free models | 0 | 0 |
| Newest model | Microsoft: Phi 4 (2025-01-10) | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview (2026-10-15) |
| Price changes in the last 90 days | 1 | 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) | Microsoft | Moondream |
|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation | $8.05 with Microsoft: Phi 4 | $72.50 with Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages | $9.80 with Microsoft: Phi 4 | $61.00 with Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview |
| Coding / tool-using agent 2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context | no suitable model | no suitable model |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page | $6.44 with Microsoft: Phi 4 | $39.00 with Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass | no suitable model | no suitable model |
| You need | Microsoft | Moondream |
|---|---|---|
| Any model | Microsoft: Phi 4 ($0.09) | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview ($0.85) |
| With tool calling | none listed | none listed |
| With image input | none listed | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview ($0.85) |
| With reasoning mode | none listed | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview ($0.85) |
| 128K+ context | none listed | none listed |
| 1M+ context | none listed | none listed |
| Model type | Microsoft | Moondream |
|---|---|---|
| text+image->text | 0 | 2 |
| text->text | 2 | 0 |
| Price per 1M (3:1 blend) | Microsoft | Moondream |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 0 | 0 |
| Under $0.50 | 1 | 0 |
| $0.50 – $3 | 1 | 2 |
| $3 – $10 | 0 | 0 |
| $10 and up | 0 | 0 |
Microsoft is cheaper on a typical model: a median of $0.35 per 1M tokens (3:1 input/output) against $0.85 for Moondream. The cheapest paid models are Microsoft: Phi 4 at $0.09 and Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview at $0.85.
It depends on the job: both list 2 models, Microsoft the lower typical price, Microsoft the longest context (66K tokens). The workload table above shows which wins for chat, RAG, agents, batch jobs and long documents.
Neither — both list 2 models.
Microsoft: Microsoft's longest is WizardLM-2 8x22B at 66K tokens; Moondream's is Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview at 32K.
Neither lists a free model; both are pay-per-token.
Microsoft: 0 of 2 models accept images. Moondream: 2 of 2.