Particle Ai lists 1 models and Upstage 3. Upstage is cheaper on a typical model ($0.26 per 1M tokens median). Below: line-up, price tiers, the cheapest model for each capability, and what each costs for five real workloads.
| Particle Ai | Upstage | |
|---|---|---|
| Models listed | 1 | 3 |
| Models with published pricing | 1 | 3 |
| Typical price (median, 3:1 blend per 1M) | $0.44 | $0.26 |
| Cheapest paid model | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) | Upstage: Solar Mini 4 ($0.09) |
| Longest context | Particle AI: Particle-1 (1.0M) | Upstage: Solar Mini 4 (524K) |
| Free models | 0 | 0 |
| Newest model | Particle AI: Particle-1 (2026-10-28) | Upstage: Solar Mini 4 (2026-09-23) |
| Price changes in the last 90 days | 0 | 2 |
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) | Particle Ai | Upstage |
|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation | $38.75 with Particle AI: Particle-1 | $7.75 with Upstage: Solar Mini 4 |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages | $40.00 with Particle AI: Particle-1 | $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 | $42.00 with Particle AI: Particle-1 | $8.40 with Upstage: Solar Mini 4 |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page | $26.00 with Particle AI: Particle-1 | $5.20 with Upstage: Solar Mini 4 |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass | $13.50 with Particle AI: Particle-1 | $2.70 with Upstage: Solar Mini 4 |
| You need | Particle Ai | Upstage |
|---|---|---|
| Any model | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) | Upstage: Solar Mini 4 ($0.09) |
| With tool calling | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) | Upstage: Solar Mini 4 ($0.09) |
| With image input | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) | none listed |
| With reasoning mode | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) | Upstage: Solar Mini 4 ($0.09) |
| 128K+ context | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) | Upstage: Solar Mini 4 ($0.09) |
| 1M+ context | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) | none listed |
| Model type | Particle Ai | Upstage |
|---|---|---|
| text+image->text | 1 | 0 |
| text->text | 0 | 3 |
| Price per 1M (3:1 blend) | Particle Ai | Upstage |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 0 | 0 |
| Under $0.50 | 1 | 3 |
| $0.50 – $3 | 0 | 0 |
| $3 – $10 | 0 | 0 |
| $10 and up | 0 | 0 |
Upstage is cheaper on a typical model: a median of $0.26 per 1M tokens (3:1 input/output) against $0.44 for Particle Ai. The cheapest paid models are Particle AI: Particle-1 at $0.44 and Upstage: Solar Mini 4 at $0.09.
It depends on the job: Upstage offers the broader line-up (1 models vs 3), Upstage the lower typical price, Particle Ai the longest context (1.0M tokens). The workload table above shows which wins for chat, RAG, agents, batch jobs and long documents.
Upstage: Particle Ai lists 1 models and Upstage lists 3.
Particle Ai: Particle Ai's longest is Particle AI: Particle-1 at 1.0M tokens; Upstage's is Upstage: Solar Mini 4 at 524K.
Neither lists a free model; both are pay-per-token.
Particle Ai: 1 of 1 models accept images. Upstage: 0 of 3.