Sakana lists 5 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.
| Sakana | Scaledown | |
|---|---|---|
| Models listed | 5 | 2 |
| Models with published pricing | 5 | 2 |
| Typical price (median, 3:1 blend per 1M) | $3.00 | $0.03 |
| Cheapest paid model | Sakana: Namazu ($1.71) | ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03) |
| Longest context | Sakana: Fugu Max (1M) | ScaleDown: Extract (1M) |
| Free models | 0 | 0 |
| Newest model | Sakana: Fugu Max (2026-09-11) | 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) | Sakana | Scaledown |
|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation | $151 with Sakana: Namazu | $3.00 with ScaleDown: Extract |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages | $154 with Sakana: Namazu | $4.80 with ScaleDown: Extract |
| Coding / tool-using agent 2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context | $162 with Sakana: Namazu | no suitable model |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page | $100 with Sakana: Namazu | $3.20 with ScaleDown: Extract |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass | $51.50 with Sakana: Namazu | $2.00 with ScaleDown: Extract |
| You need | Sakana | Scaledown |
|---|---|---|
| Any model | Sakana: Namazu ($1.71) | ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03) |
| With tool calling | Sakana: Namazu ($1.71) | none listed |
| With image input | Sakana: Namazu ($1.71) | ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03) |
| With reasoning mode | Sakana: Namazu ($1.71) | none listed |
| 128K+ context | Sakana: Namazu ($1.71) | ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03) |
| 1M+ context | Sakana: Fugu Max ($3.00) | ScaleDown: Extract ($0.03) |
| Model type | Sakana | Scaledown |
|---|---|---|
| text+image+file->text | 4 | 2 |
| text+image->text | 1 | 0 |
| Price per 1M (3:1 blend) | Sakana | Scaledown |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 0 | 0 |
| Under $0.50 | 0 | 2 |
| $0.50 – $3 | 2 | 0 |
| $3 – $10 | 1 | 0 |
| $10 and up | 2 | 0 |
Scaledown is cheaper on a typical model: a median of $0.03 per 1M tokens (3:1 input/output) against $3.00 for Sakana. The cheapest paid models are Sakana: Namazu at $1.71 and ScaleDown: Extract at $0.03.
It depends on the job: Sakana offers the broader line-up (5 models vs 2), Scaledown the lower typical price. The workload table above shows which wins for chat, RAG, agents, batch jobs and long documents.
Sakana: Sakana lists 5 models and Scaledown lists 2.
It is a tie: Sakana's longest is Sakana: Fugu Max at 1M tokens; Scaledown's is ScaleDown: Extract at 1M.
Neither lists a free model; both are pay-per-token.
Sakana: 5 of 5 models accept images. Scaledown: 2 of 2.