Choose AionLabs: Aion-1.0 if…
- you need to fit long inputs in one request — 131K tokens is roughly 197 pages, against 48
- you generate long outputs in one go — up to 33K tokens (about 24,600 words) per response
AionLabs: Aion-1.0 vs Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview
Neither wins outright: AionLabs: Aion-1.0 is the pick when you need to fit long inputs in one request, Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview when cost matters at scale.
Key numbers
| Spec | AionLabs: Aion-1.0 | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Aion Labs | Moondream |
| Input price (per 1M tokens) | $4.00 | $0.30 |
| Output price (per 1M tokens) | $8.00 | $2.50 |
| Blended price (3:1 input/output) | $5.00 | $0.85 |
| Cheaper than … of all models we track | 10% | 43% |
| Context window | 131K tokens (~197 pages) | 32K tokens (~48 pages) |
| Larger context than … of all models | 23% | 5% |
| Max output per response | 33K tokens (~24,600 words) | 4K tokens (~3,100 words) |
| Input types | text | text, image |
| Output types | text | text |
| Free variant | No | No |
| Listed since | 2025-02-04 | 2026-10-15 |
What it costs for real workloads
Monthly cost at list price for five common workloads. Token counts per unit are stated so you can scale them to your own traffic. A workload that does not fit a model's context window is marked rather than priced.
| Workload (per month) | AionLabs: Aion-1.0 | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens) | $460 | $72.50 | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview saves $388 |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens) | $560 | $61.00 | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview saves $499 |
| Coding / tool-using agent 2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context (60,000 in / 6,000 out tokens) | $576 | Doesn't fit context | — |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens) | $368 | $39.00 | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview saves $329 |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens) | $208 | Doesn't fit context | — |
Capabilities side by side
| Capability | AionLabs: Aion-1.0 | Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview | What it lets you do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tool / function calling | — | — | call your APIs and run agent loops |
| Structured output (JSON schema) | — | — | return JSON that validates against your schema |
| Reasoning / thinking mode | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | spend extra tokens thinking before answering hard problems |
| Image input | — | ✓ Yes | read screenshots, charts and scanned pages |
| Audio input | — | — | take speech or audio directly |
| File / PDF input | — | — | accept documents without your own parsing step |
| Image output | — | — | generate images, not just text |
| Built-in web search | — | — | answer from live web results |
| Seed (reproducible sampling) | — | — | repeat a generation for tests and evals |
| Log-probabilities | — | — | read token confidence for classification and scoring |
From each model's published parameters and input/output types. “—” means not advertised, not proven absent.
Price history
- AionLabs: Aion-1.0: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-03-10.
- Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-10-16.
Which should you choose?
Choose Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview if…
- cost matters at scale — it is 83% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($72.50 vs $460 a month for 50,000 support chats)
- you need image input — to read screenshots, charts and scanned pages; AionLabs: Aion-1.0 does not advertise it
- you want the newer model — released 2026-10-15, 21 months after the other
Frequently asked questions
Is AionLabs: Aion-1.0 better than Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview?
Neither wins outright: AionLabs: Aion-1.0 is the pick when you need to fit long inputs in one request, Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview when cost matters at scale. In short: AionLabs: Aion-1.0 when you need to fit long inputs in one request, you generate long outputs in one go; Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview when cost matters at scale, you need image input, you want the newer model.
Which is cheaper, AionLabs: Aion-1.0 or Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview?
Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview is cheaper: $0.85 vs $5.00 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 83% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $72.50 against $460.
How much do AionLabs: Aion-1.0 and Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview cost per million tokens?
AionLabs: Aion-1.0 costs $4.00 per 1M input tokens and $8.00 per 1M output tokens; Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview costs $0.30 input and $2.50 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.
Which has the bigger context window, AionLabs: Aion-1.0 or Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview?
AionLabs: Aion-1.0: 131K tokens, about 197 pages, against 32K (about 48 pages) for Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview.
Do AionLabs: Aion-1.0 and Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview support function calling and JSON output?
Tool calling — AionLabs: Aion-1.0: not advertised, Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview: not advertised. JSON-schema structured output — AionLabs: Aion-1.0: not advertised, Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview: not advertised.
Can AionLabs: Aion-1.0 or Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview read images?
Only Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview accepts image input; AionLabs: Aion-1.0 is text-only for input.
Is AionLabs: Aion-1.0 or Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview free to use?
No free variant is listed for either; both are pay-per-token.
What is the maximum output length of AionLabs: Aion-1.0 and Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview?
AionLabs: Aion-1.0 can write up to 33K tokens (about 24,600 words) per response; Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview up to 4K (about 3,100 words).
When were AionLabs: Aion-1.0 and Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview released?
AionLabs: Aion-1.0 was listed on 2025-02-04; Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview on 2026-10-15.
About the two models
AionLabs: Aion-1.0
Aion-1.0 is a multi-model system designed for high performance across various tasks, including reasoning and coding. It is built on DeepSeek-R1, augmented with additional models and techniques such as Tree of Thoughts (ToT) and Mixture of Experts (MoE). It is Aion Lab's most powerful reasoning model.
Full AionLabs: Aion-1.0 specs →Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview
Moondream 3 Preview is a vision-language model from Moondream with 9B total parameters and 2B active (mixture-of-experts). It handles visual question answering, captioning, OCR, and visual reasoning over images, with...
Full Moondream: Moondream 3 Preview specs →