Moondream lists 2 models and Upstage 3. Upstage is cheaper on a typical model ($0.16 per 1M tokens median). Below: line-up, price tiers, the cheapest model for each capability, and what each costs for five real workloads.
| Moondream | Upstage | |
|---|---|---|
| Models listed | 2 | 3 |
| Models with published pricing | 2 | 3 |
| Typical price (median, 3:1 blend per 1M) | $0.85 | $0.16 |
| Cheapest paid model | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview ($0.85) | Upstage: Solar Mini 4 ($0.09) |
| Longest context | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview (32K) | Upstage: Solar Mini 4 (524K) |
| Free models | 0 | 0 |
| Newest model | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview (2026-10-15) | Upstage: Solar Mini 4 (2026-09-23) |
| 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 | Upstage |
|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation | $72.50 with Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview | $7.75 with Upstage: Solar Mini 4 |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages | $61.00 with Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview | $8.00 with Upstage: Solar Mini 4 |
| Coding / tool-using agent 2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context | no suitable model | $8.40 with Upstage: Solar Mini 4 |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page | $39.00 with Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview | $5.20 with Upstage: Solar Mini 4 |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass | no suitable model | $2.70 with Upstage: Solar Mini 4 |
| You need | Moondream | Upstage |
|---|---|---|
| Any model | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview ($0.85) | Upstage: Solar Mini 4 ($0.09) |
| With tool calling | none listed | Upstage: Solar Mini 4 ($0.09) |
| With image input | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview ($0.85) | none listed |
| With reasoning mode | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview ($0.85) | Upstage: Solar Mini 4 ($0.09) |
| 128K+ context | none listed | Upstage: Solar Mini 4 ($0.09) |
| 1M+ context | none listed | none listed |
| Model type | Moondream | Upstage |
|---|---|---|
| text+image->text | 2 | 0 |
| text->text | 0 | 3 |
| Price per 1M (3:1 blend) | Moondream | Upstage |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 0 | 0 |
| Under $0.50 | 0 | 3 |
| $0.50 – $3 | 2 | 0 |
| $3 – $10 | 0 | 0 |
| $10 and up | 0 | 0 |
Upstage is cheaper on a typical model: a median of $0.16 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 Upstage: Solar Mini 4 at $0.09.
It depends on the job: Upstage offers the broader line-up (2 models vs 3), Upstage the lower typical price, Upstage the longest context (524K tokens). The workload table above shows which wins for chat, RAG, agents, batch jobs and long documents.
Upstage: Moondream lists 2 models and Upstage lists 3.
Upstage: Moondream's longest is Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview at 32K tokens; Upstage's is Upstage: Solar Mini 4 at 524K.
Neither lists a free model; both are pay-per-token.
Moondream: 2 of 2 models accept images. Upstage: 0 of 3.