Choose AionLabs: Aion 3.5 if…
- you want the newer model — released 2026-09-23, 4 months after the other
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 vs MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free)
Neither wins outright: AionLabs: Aion 3.5 is the pick when you want the newer model, MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) when cost matters at scale.
Key numbers
| Spec | AionLabs: Aion 3.5 | MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Aion Labs | Minimax |
| Input price (per 1M tokens) | $3.00 | $0 |
| Output price (per 1M tokens) | $6.00 | $0 |
| Blended price (3:1 input/output) | $3.75 | $0 |
| Cheaper than … of all models we track | 17% | 90% |
| Context window | 262K tokens (~393 pages) | 1.0M tokens (~1,573 pages) |
| Larger context than … of all models | 48% | 81% |
| Max output per response | 33K tokens (~24,600 words) | 944K tokens (~707,800 words) |
| Input types | text | text, image, video |
| Output types | text | text |
| Free variant | No | Yes |
| Listed since | 2026-09-23 | 2026-05-31 |
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 | MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens) | $345 | $0 | MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) saves $345 |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens) | $420 | $0 | MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) saves $420 |
| 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) | $432 | $0 | MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) saves $432 |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens) | $276 | $0 | MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) saves $276 |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens) | $156 | $0 | MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) saves $156 |
Capabilities side by side
| Capability | AionLabs: Aion 3.5 | MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) | 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 | — | — | 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: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-09-24.
- MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free): price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-08-26.
Which should you choose?
Choose MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) if…
- cost matters at scale — it is 100% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($0 vs $345 a month for 50,000 support chats)
- you need to fit long inputs in one request — 1.0M tokens is roughly 1,573 pages, against 393
- you need image input — to read screenshots, charts and scanned pages; AionLabs: Aion 3.5 does not advertise it
- you need seed (reproducible sampling) — to repeat a generation for tests and evals; AionLabs: Aion 3.5 does not advertise it
- you generate long outputs in one go — up to 944K tokens (about 707,800 words) per response
- you want to prototype at zero cost — a free variant is listed
Frequently asked questions
Is AionLabs: Aion 3.5 better than MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free)?
Neither wins outright: AionLabs: Aion 3.5 is the pick when you want the newer model, MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) when cost matters at scale. In short: AionLabs: Aion 3.5 when you want the newer model; MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) when cost matters at scale, you need to fit long inputs in one request, you need image input, you need seed (reproducible sampling), you generate long outputs in one go, you want to prototype at zero cost.
Which is cheaper, AionLabs: Aion 3.5 or MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free)?
MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) is cheaper: $0 vs $3.75 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 100% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $0 against $345.
How much do AionLabs: Aion 3.5 and MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) cost per million tokens?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 costs $3.00 per 1M input tokens and $6.00 per 1M output tokens; MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) costs $0 input and $0 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.
Which has the bigger context window, AionLabs: Aion 3.5 or MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free)?
MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free): 1.0M tokens, about 1,573 pages, against 262K (about 393 pages) for AionLabs: Aion 3.5.
Do AionLabs: Aion 3.5 and MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) support function calling and JSON output?
Tool calling — AionLabs: Aion 3.5: yes, MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free): yes. JSON-schema structured output — AionLabs: Aion 3.5: yes, MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free): yes.
Can AionLabs: Aion 3.5 or MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) read images?
Only MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) accepts image input; AionLabs: Aion 3.5 is text-only for input.
Is AionLabs: Aion 3.5 or MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) free to use?
MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) has a free variant (minimax/minimax-m3:free). Free variants usually carry tighter rate limits.
What is the maximum output length of AionLabs: Aion 3.5 and MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free)?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 can write up to 33K tokens (about 24,600 words) per response; MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) up to 944K (about 707,800 words).
When were AionLabs: Aion 3.5 and MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) released?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 was listed on 2026-09-23; MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) on 2026-05-31.
About the two models
AionLabs: Aion 3.5
Aion 3.5 is a multi-model roleplaying and storytelling system from AionLabs, built on the GLM family of models. It uses a collaborative generation process in which multiple specialized models each...
Full AionLabs: Aion 3.5 specs →MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free)
MiniMax-M3 is a multimodal foundation model from MiniMax. It supports text, image, and video inputs with text output, a 1M-token context window, and is suited for long-horizon agentic work, coding,...
Full MiniMax: MiniMax M3 (free) specs →