Choose AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini if…
No advantage on the data we track — pick it for provider preference or output quality on your own prompts.
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini vs Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash
Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash comes out ahead on the data we track: 6 advantages and none for AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini.
Key numbers
| Spec | AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini | Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Aion Labs | Qwen |
| Input price (per 1M tokens) | $0.70 | $0.15 |
| Output price (per 1M tokens) | $1.40 | $0.47 |
| Blended price (3:1 input/output) | $0.87 | $0.23 |
| Cheaper than … of all models we track | 42% | 68% |
| Context window | 262K tokens (~393 pages) | 1M tokens (~1,500 pages) |
| Larger context than … of all models | 48% | 70% |
| Max output per response | 33K tokens (~24,600 words) | 131K tokens (~98,300 words) |
| Input types | text | text, image, video |
| Output types | text | text |
| Free variant | No | No |
| Listed since | 2026-09-23 | 2026-08-26 |
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 3.5 Mini | Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens) | $80.50 | $20.65 | Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash saves $59.85 |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens) | $98.00 | $22.70 | Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash saves $75.30 |
| 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) | $101 | $23.64 | Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash saves $77.16 |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens) | $64.40 | $14.82 | Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash saves $49.58 |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens) | $36.40 | $7.97 | Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash saves $28.43 |
Capabilities side by side
| Capability | AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini | Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash | What it lets you do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tool / function calling | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | call your APIs and run agent loops |
| Structured output (JSON schema) | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | 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) | — | ✓ Yes | repeat a generation for tests and evals |
| Log-probabilities | — | ✓ Yes | 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 3.5 Mini: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-09-24.
- Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash: input price cut 6% ($0.16 → $0.15/1M) on 2026-08-28.
| Date | Model | Input / 1M | Output / 1M |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-28 | Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash | $0.15 | $0.47 |
Which should you choose?
Choose Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash if…
- cost matters at scale — it is 74% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($20.65 vs $80.50 a month for 50,000 support chats)
- you need to fit long inputs in one request — 1M tokens is roughly 1,500 pages, against 393
- you need image input — to read screenshots, charts and scanned pages; AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini does not advertise it
- you need seed (reproducible sampling) — to repeat a generation for tests and evals; AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini does not advertise it
- you need log-probabilities — to read token confidence for classification and scoring; AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini does not advertise it
- you generate long outputs in one go — up to 131K tokens (about 98,300 words) per response
Frequently asked questions
Is AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini better than Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash?
Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash comes out ahead on the data we track: 6 advantages and none for AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini.
Which is cheaper, AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini or Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash?
Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash is cheaper: $0.23 vs $0.87 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 74% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $20.65 against $80.50.
How much do AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini and Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash cost per million tokens?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini costs $0.70 per 1M input tokens and $1.40 per 1M output tokens; Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash costs $0.15 input and $0.47 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.
Which has the bigger context window, AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini or Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash?
Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash: 1M tokens, about 1,500 pages, against 262K (about 393 pages) for AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini.
Do AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini and Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash support function calling and JSON output?
Tool calling — AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini: yes, Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash: yes. JSON-schema structured output — AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini: yes, Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash: yes.
Can AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini or Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash read images?
Only Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash accepts image input; AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini is text-only for input.
Is AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini or Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash free to use?
No free variant is listed for either; both are pay-per-token.
What is the maximum output length of AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini and Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini can write up to 33K tokens (about 24,600 words) per response; Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash up to 131K (about 98,300 words).
When were AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini and Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash released?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini was listed on 2026-09-23; Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash on 2026-08-26.
Has the price of AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini or Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash changed?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-09-24. Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash: input price cut 6% ($0.16 → $0.15/1M) on 2026-08-28.
About the two models
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini
Aion 3.5 Mini is a multi-model roleplaying and storytelling system from AionLabs, built on the GLM family of models. It is the smaller, lower-cost sibling of Aion 3.5 and uses...
Full AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini specs →Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash
Qwen3.8 Flash is a multimodal reasoning model from Alibaba. It is suited for coding assistance, agentic workflows, visual understanding, document and codebase analysis, desktop interaction, chart analysis, and long-video analysis.
Full Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash specs →