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, 18 months after the other
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini vs xAI: Grok 3 Mini Beta
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 Beta when cost matters at scale.
Key numbers
| Spec | AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini | xAI: Grok 3 Mini Beta |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 2025-04-09 |
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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 Beta | 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 Beta 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 Beta 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 Beta 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 Beta 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 Beta saves $20.90 |
Capabilities side by side
| Capability | AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini | xAI: Grok 3 Mini Beta | 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 Beta: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-03-10.
Which should you choose?
Choose xAI: Grok 3 Mini Beta 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 Beta?
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 Beta 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 Beta 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 Beta?
xAI: Grok 3 Mini Beta 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 Beta 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 Beta 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 Beta?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini: 262K tokens, about 393 pages, against 131K (about 197 pages) for xAI: Grok 3 Mini Beta.
Do AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini and xAI: Grok 3 Mini Beta support function calling and JSON output?
Tool calling — AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini: yes, xAI: Grok 3 Mini Beta: yes. JSON-schema structured output — AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini: yes, xAI: Grok 3 Mini Beta: yes.
Can AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini or xAI: Grok 3 Mini Beta read images?
Neither accepts image input — both are text-in models.
Is AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini or xAI: Grok 3 Mini Beta 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 Beta released?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Mini was listed on 2026-09-23; xAI: Grok 3 Mini Beta on 2025-04-09.
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 Beta
Grok 3 Mini is a lightweight, smaller thinking model. Unlike traditional models that generate answers immediately, Grok 3 Mini thinks before responding. It’s ideal for reasoning-heavy tasks that don’t demand extensive domain knowledge, and shines in math-specific and quantitative use cases, such as solving challenging puzzles or math problems. Transparent "thinking" traces accessible. Defaults to low reasoning, can boost with setting `reasoning: { effort: "high" }` Note: That there are two xAI endpoints for this model. By default when using this model we will always route you to the base endpoint. If you want the fast endpoint you can add `provider: { sort: throughput}`, to sort by throughput instead.
Full xAI: Grok 3 Mini Beta specs →