Choose AionLabs: Aion 3.5 if…
- cost matters at scale — it is 79% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($345 vs $1,550 a month for 50,000 support chats)
- you want the newer model — released 2026-09-23, 12 months after the other
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 vs OpenAI: o3 Deep Research
Neither wins outright: AionLabs: Aion 3.5 is the pick when cost matters at scale, OpenAI: o3 Deep Research when you need image input.
Key numbers
| Spec | AionLabs: Aion 3.5 | OpenAI: o3 Deep Research |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Aion Labs | OpenAI |
| Input price (per 1M tokens) | $3.00 | $10.00 |
| Output price (per 1M tokens) | $6.00 | $40.00 |
| Blended price (3:1 input/output) | $3.75 | $17.50 |
| Cheaper than … of all models we track | 17% | 3% |
| Context window | 262K tokens (~393 pages) | 200K tokens (~300 pages) |
| Larger context than … of all models | 48% | 38% |
| Max output per response | 33K tokens (~24,600 words) | 100K tokens (~75,000 words) |
| Input types | text | image, text, file |
| Output types | text | text |
| Free variant | No | No |
| Listed since | 2026-09-23 | 2025-10-10 |
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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 | OpenAI: o3 Deep Research | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens) | $345 | $1,550 | AionLabs: Aion 3.5 saves $1,205 |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens) | $420 | $1,600 | AionLabs: Aion 3.5 saves $1,180 |
| 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 | $1,680 | AionLabs: Aion 3.5 saves $1,248 |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens) | $276 | $1,040 | AionLabs: Aion 3.5 saves $764 |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens) | $156 | $540 | AionLabs: Aion 3.5 saves $384 |
Capabilities side by side
| Capability | AionLabs: Aion 3.5 | OpenAI: o3 Deep Research | 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 | — | ✓ Yes | 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: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-09-24.
- OpenAI: o3 Deep Research: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-03-10.
Which should you choose?
Choose OpenAI: o3 Deep Research if…
- you need image input — to read screenshots, charts and scanned pages; AionLabs: Aion 3.5 does not advertise it
- you need file / PDF input — to accept documents without your own parsing step; AionLabs: Aion 3.5 does not advertise it
- you need built-in web search — to answer from live web results; 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 need log-probabilities — to read token confidence for classification and scoring; AionLabs: Aion 3.5 does not advertise it
- you generate long outputs in one go — up to 100K tokens (about 75,000 words) per response
Frequently asked questions
Is AionLabs: Aion 3.5 better than OpenAI: o3 Deep Research?
Neither wins outright: AionLabs: Aion 3.5 is the pick when cost matters at scale, OpenAI: o3 Deep Research when you need image input. In short: AionLabs: Aion 3.5 when cost matters at scale, you want the newer model; OpenAI: o3 Deep Research when you need image input, you need file / PDF input, you need built-in web search, you need seed (reproducible sampling), you need log-probabilities, you generate long outputs in one go.
Which is cheaper, AionLabs: Aion 3.5 or OpenAI: o3 Deep Research?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 is cheaper: $3.75 vs $17.50 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 79% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $345 against $1,550.
How much do AionLabs: Aion 3.5 and OpenAI: o3 Deep Research cost per million tokens?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 costs $3.00 per 1M input tokens and $6.00 per 1M output tokens; OpenAI: o3 Deep Research costs $10.00 input and $40.00 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.
Which has the bigger context window, AionLabs: Aion 3.5 or OpenAI: o3 Deep Research?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5: 262K tokens, about 393 pages, against 200K (about 300 pages) for OpenAI: o3 Deep Research.
Do AionLabs: Aion 3.5 and OpenAI: o3 Deep Research support function calling and JSON output?
Tool calling — AionLabs: Aion 3.5: yes, OpenAI: o3 Deep Research: yes. JSON-schema structured output — AionLabs: Aion 3.5: yes, OpenAI: o3 Deep Research: yes.
Can AionLabs: Aion 3.5 or OpenAI: o3 Deep Research read images?
Only OpenAI: o3 Deep Research accepts image input; AionLabs: Aion 3.5 is text-only for input.
Is AionLabs: Aion 3.5 or OpenAI: o3 Deep Research 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 and OpenAI: o3 Deep Research?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 can write up to 33K tokens (about 24,600 words) per response; OpenAI: o3 Deep Research up to 100K (about 75,000 words).
When were AionLabs: Aion 3.5 and OpenAI: o3 Deep Research released?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 was listed on 2026-09-23; OpenAI: o3 Deep Research on 2025-10-10.
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 →OpenAI: o3 Deep Research
o3-deep-research is OpenAI's advanced model for deep research, designed to tackle complex, multi-step research tasks. Note: This model always uses the 'web_search' tool which adds additional cost.
Full OpenAI: o3 Deep Research specs →