Choose AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini if…
- you need to fit long inputs in one request — 262K tokens is roughly 393 pages, against 197
- you want the newer model — released 2026-09-23, 16 months after the other
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini vs xAI: Grok 3 Mini
Neither wins outright: AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini is the pick when you need to fit long inputs in one request, xAI: Grok 3 Mini when cost matters at scale.
Key numbers
| Spec | AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini | xAI: Grok 3 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Aion Labs | X Ai |
| Input price (per 1M tokens) | $0.70 | $0.30 |
| Output price (per 1M tokens) | $1.40 | $0.50 |
| Blended price (3:1 input/output) | $0.87 | $0.35 |
| Cheaper than … of all models we track | 42% | 61% |
| Context window | 262K tokens (~393 pages) | 131K tokens (~197 pages) |
| Larger context than … of all models | 48% | 23% |
| Max output per response | 33K tokens (~24,600 words) | n/a |
| Input types | text | text |
| Output types | text | text |
| Free variant | No | No |
| Listed since | 2026-09-23 | 2025-06-10 |
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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 | xAI: Grok 3 Mini | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens) | $80.50 | $32.50 | xAI: Grok 3 Mini saves $48.00 |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens) | $98.00 | $41.00 | xAI: Grok 3 Mini saves $57.00 |
| 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 | $42.00 | xAI: Grok 3 Mini saves $58.80 |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens) | $64.40 | $27.00 | xAI: Grok 3 Mini saves $37.40 |
| 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 | $15.50 | xAI: Grok 3 Mini saves $20.90 |
Capabilities side by side
| Capability | AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini | xAI: Grok 3 Mini | 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 | — | — | 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 | — | ✓ Yes | 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.
- xAI: Grok 3 Mini: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-03-10.
Which should you choose?
Choose xAI: Grok 3 Mini if…
- cost matters at scale — it is 60% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($32.50 vs $80.50 a month for 50,000 support chats)
- you need built-in web search — to answer from live web results; 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
Frequently asked questions
Is AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini better than xAI: Grok 3 Mini?
Neither wins outright: AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini is the pick when you need to fit long inputs in one request, xAI: Grok 3 Mini when cost matters at scale. In short: AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini when you need to fit long inputs in one request, you want the newer model; xAI: Grok 3 Mini when cost matters at scale, you need built-in web search, you need seed (reproducible sampling), you need log-probabilities.
Which is cheaper, AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini or xAI: Grok 3 Mini?
xAI: Grok 3 Mini is cheaper: $0.35 vs $0.87 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 60% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $32.50 against $80.50.
How much do AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini and xAI: Grok 3 Mini cost per million tokens?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini costs $0.70 per 1M input tokens and $1.40 per 1M output tokens; xAI: Grok 3 Mini costs $0.30 input and $0.50 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.
Which has the bigger context window, AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini or xAI: Grok 3 Mini?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini: 262K tokens, about 393 pages, against 131K (about 197 pages) for xAI: Grok 3 Mini.
Do AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini and xAI: Grok 3 Mini support function calling and JSON output?
Tool calling — AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini: yes, xAI: Grok 3 Mini: yes. JSON-schema structured output — AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini: yes, xAI: Grok 3 Mini: yes.
Can AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini or xAI: Grok 3 Mini read images?
Neither accepts image input — both are text-in models.
Is AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini or xAI: Grok 3 Mini free to use?
No free variant is listed for either; both are pay-per-token.
When were AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini and xAI: Grok 3 Mini released?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini was listed on 2026-09-23; xAI: Grok 3 Mini on 2025-06-10.
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 →xAI: Grok 3 Mini
A lightweight model that thinks before responding. Fast, smart, and great for logic-based tasks that do not require deep domain knowledge. The raw thinking traces are accessible.
Full xAI: Grok 3 Mini specs →