Poolside lists 4 models and Scaledown 2. Scaledown is cheaper on a typical model ($0.03 per 1M tokens median). Below: line-up, price tiers, the cheapest model for each capability, and what each costs for five real workloads.
| Poolside | Scaledown | |
|---|---|---|
| Models listed | 4 | 2 |
| Models with published pricing | 4 | 2 |
| Typical price (median, 3:1 blend per 1M) | $0.09 | $0.03 |
| Cheapest paid model | Poolside: Laguna XS 2.1 ($0.07) | ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03) |
| Longest context | Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (1.0M) | ScaleDown: Extract (1M) |
| Free models | 2 | 0 |
| Newest model | Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (2026-07-21) | ScaleDown: Extract (2026-10-13) |
| Price changes in the last 90 days | 0 | 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) | Poolside | Scaledown |
|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation | $6.90 with Poolside: Laguna XS 2.1 | $3.00 with ScaleDown: Extract |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages | $8.40 with Poolside: Laguna XS 2.1 | $4.80 with ScaleDown: Extract |
| Coding / tool-using agent 2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context | $8.64 with Poolside: Laguna XS 2.1 | no suitable model |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page | $5.52 with Poolside: Laguna XS 2.1 | $3.20 with ScaleDown: Extract |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass | $3.12 with Poolside: Laguna XS 2.1 | $2.00 with ScaleDown: Extract |
| You need | Poolside | Scaledown |
|---|---|---|
| Any model | Poolside: Laguna XS 2.1 ($0.07) | ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03) |
| With tool calling | Poolside: Laguna XS 2.1 ($0.07) | none listed |
| With image input | none listed | ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03) |
| With reasoning mode | Poolside: Laguna XS 2.1 ($0.07) | none listed |
| 128K+ context | Poolside: Laguna XS 2.1 ($0.07) | ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03) |
| 1M+ context | Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 ($0.11) | ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03) |
| Model type | Poolside | Scaledown |
|---|---|---|
| text+image+file->text | 0 | 2 |
| text->text | 4 | 0 |
| Price per 1M (3:1 blend) | Poolside | Scaledown |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 2 | 0 |
| Under $0.50 | 2 | 2 |
| $0.50 – $3 | 0 | 0 |
| $3 – $10 | 0 | 0 |
| $10 and up | 0 | 0 |
Scaledown is cheaper on a typical model: a median of $0.03 per 1M tokens (3:1 input/output) against $0.09 for Poolside. The cheapest paid models are Poolside: Laguna XS 2.1 at $0.07 and ScaleDown: Extract at $0.03.
It depends on the job: Poolside offers the broader line-up (4 models vs 2), Scaledown the lower typical price, Poolside the longest context (1.0M tokens). The workload table above shows which wins for chat, RAG, agents, batch jobs and long documents.
Poolside: Poolside lists 4 models and Scaledown lists 2.
Poolside: Poolside's longest is Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 at 1.0M tokens; Scaledown's is ScaleDown: Extract at 1M.
Poolside: 2 free models (e.g. Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)). Scaledown: none.
Poolside: 0 of 4 models accept images. Scaledown: 2 of 2.