Moondream vs Recursive

Moondream lists 2 models and Recursive 1. Below: line-up, price tiers, the cheapest model for each capability, and what each costs for five real workloads.

At a glance

MoondreamRecursive
Models listed21
Models with published pricing21
Typical price (median, 3:1 blend per 1M)$0.85n/a
Cheapest paid modelMoondream: Moondream 3 Preview ($0.85)n/a
Longest contextMoondream: Moondream 3 Preview (32K)Recursive: Flint (free) (262K)
Free models01
Newest modelMoondream: Moondream 3 Preview (2026-10-15)Recursive: Flint (free) (2026-10-21)
Price changes in the last 90 days00
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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)MoondreamRecursive
Customer-support chatbot
50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation
$72.50 with Moondream: Moondream 3 Previewno suitable model
RAG search over documents
20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages
$61.00 with Moondream: Moondream 3 Previewno suitable model
Coding / tool-using agent
2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context
no suitable modelno suitable model
Batch summarisation
10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page
$39.00 with Moondream: Moondream 3 Previewno suitable model
Long-document analysis
500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass
no suitable modelno suitable model

Cheapest model for each capability

You needMoondreamRecursive
Any modelMoondream: Moondream 3 Preview ($0.85)none listed
With tool callingnone listednone listed
With image inputMoondream: Moondream 3 Preview ($0.85)none listed
With reasoning modeMoondream: Moondream 3 Preview ($0.85)none listed
128K+ contextnone listednone listed
1M+ contextnone listednone listed

Line-up by type and price tier

Model typeMoondreamRecursive
text+image->text20
text->text01
Price per 1M (3:1 blend)MoondreamRecursive
Free01
Under $0.5000
$0.50 – $320
$3 – $1000
$10 and up00

Frequently asked questions

Is Moondream better than Recursive?

It depends on the job: Moondream offers the broader line-up (2 models vs 1), Recursive the longest context (262K tokens). The workload table above shows which wins for chat, RAG, agents, batch jobs and long documents.

Which has more models, Moondream or Recursive?

Moondream: Moondream lists 2 models and Recursive lists 1.

Which provider has the longest context window?

Recursive: Moondream's longest is Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview at 32K tokens; Recursive's is Recursive: Flint (free) at 262K.

Do Moondream or Recursive offer free models?

Moondream: none. Recursive: 1 free model (e.g. Recursive: Flint (free)).

Which provider has models that can read images?

Moondream: 2 of 2 models accept images. Recursive: 0 of 1.

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