Moondream lists 2 models and Nousresearch 6. Nousresearch is cheaper on a typical model ($0.70 per 1M tokens median). Below: line-up, price tiers, the cheapest model for each capability, and what each costs for five real workloads.
| Moondream | Nousresearch | |
|---|---|---|
| Models listed | 2 | 6 |
| Models with published pricing | 2 | 6 |
| Typical price (median, 3:1 blend per 1M) | $0.85 | $0.70 |
| Cheapest paid model | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview ($0.85) | NousResearch: Hermes 2 Pro - Llama-3 8B ($0.14) |
| Longest context | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview (32K) | Nous: Hermes 3 405B Instruct (131K) |
| Free models | 0 | 1 |
| Newest model | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview (2026-10-15) | Nous: Hermes 4 405B (2025-08-26) |
| Price changes in the last 90 days | 0 | 1 |
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) | Moondream | Nousresearch |
|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation | $72.50 with Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview | $13.30 with NousResearch: Hermes 2 Pro - Llama-3 8B |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages | $61.00 with Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview | $18.20 with NousResearch: Hermes 2 Pro - Llama-3 8B |
| 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 | $39.00 with Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview | $12.80 with Nous: Hermes 4 70B |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass | no suitable model | $6.90 with Nous: Hermes 4 70B |
| You need | Moondream | Nousresearch |
|---|---|---|
| Any model | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview ($0.85) | NousResearch: Hermes 2 Pro - Llama-3 8B ($0.14) |
| With tool calling | none listed | none listed |
| With image input | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview ($0.85) | none listed |
| With reasoning mode | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview ($0.85) | Nous: Hermes 4 70B ($0.20) |
| 128K+ context | none listed | Nous: Hermes 4 70B ($0.20) |
| 1M+ context | none listed | none listed |
| Model type | Moondream | Nousresearch |
|---|---|---|
| text+image->text | 2 | 0 |
| text->text | 0 | 6 |
| Price per 1M (3:1 blend) | Moondream | Nousresearch |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 0 | 1 |
| Under $0.50 | 0 | 2 |
| $0.50 – $3 | 2 | 3 |
| $3 – $10 | 0 | 0 |
| $10 and up | 0 | 0 |
Nousresearch is cheaper on a typical model: a median of $0.70 per 1M tokens (3:1 input/output) against $0.85 for Moondream. The cheapest paid models are Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview at $0.85 and NousResearch: Hermes 2 Pro - Llama-3 8B at $0.14.
It depends on the job: Nousresearch offers the broader line-up (2 models vs 6), Nousresearch the lower typical price, Nousresearch the longest context (131K tokens). The workload table above shows which wins for chat, RAG, agents, batch jobs and long documents.
Nousresearch: Moondream lists 2 models and Nousresearch lists 6.
Nousresearch: Moondream's longest is Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview at 32K tokens; Nousresearch's is Nous: Hermes 3 405B Instruct at 131K.
Moondream: none. Nousresearch: 1 free model (e.g. Nous: Hermes 3 405B Instruct (free)).
Moondream: 2 of 2 models accept images. Nousresearch: 0 of 6.