Choose AionLabs: Aion 3.5 if…
- you generate long outputs in one go — up to 33K tokens (about 24,600 words) per response
- you want the newer model — released 2026-09-23, 7 months after the other
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 vs Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
Neither wins outright: AionLabs: Aion 3.5 is the pick when you generate long outputs in one go, Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B when cost matters at scale.
Key numbers
| Spec | AionLabs: Aion 3.5 | Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Aion Labs | Qwen |
| Input price (per 1M tokens) | $3.00 | $0.15 |
| Output price (per 1M tokens) | $6.00 | $1.00 |
| Blended price (3:1 input/output) | $3.75 | $0.36 |
| Cheaper than … of all models we track | 17% | 60% |
| Context window | 262K tokens (~393 pages) | 262K tokens (~393 pages) |
| Larger context than … of all models | 48% | 48% |
| Max output per response | 33K tokens (~24,600 words) | 16K tokens (~12,300 words) |
| Input types | text | text, image, video |
| Output types | text | text |
| Free variant | No | No |
| Listed since | 2026-09-23 | 2026-02-25 |
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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 | Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens) | $345 | $31.25 | Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B saves $314 |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens) | $420 | $28.00 | Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B saves $392 |
| 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 | $30.00 | Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B saves $402 |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens) | $276 | $18.00 | Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B saves $258 |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens) | $156 | $8.50 | Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B saves $148 |
Capabilities side by side
| Capability | AionLabs: Aion 3.5 | Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B | 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: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-09-24.
- Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B: input price raised 47% ($0.08 → $0.15/1M), output price raised 25% ($0.75 → $1.00/1M) on 2026-10-14 (15 price changes since 2026-03-10).
| Date | Model | Input / 1M | Output / 1M |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-14 | Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B | $0.15 | $1.00 |
| 2026-10-10 | Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B | $0.08 | $0.75 |
| 2026-10-09 | Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B | $0.16 | $1.30 |
| 2026-10-03 | Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B | $0.15 | $1.00 |
| 2026-09-28 | Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B | $0.16 | $1.30 |
| 2026-09-20 | Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B | $0.31 | $1.25 |
| 2026-09-15 | Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B | $0.16 | $1.30 |
| 2026-09-06 | Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B | $0.31 | $1.25 |
Which should you choose?
Choose Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B if…
- cost matters at scale — it is 90% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($31.25 vs $345 a month for 50,000 support chats)
- 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 need log-probabilities — to read token confidence for classification and scoring; AionLabs: Aion 3.5 does not advertise it
Frequently asked questions
Is AionLabs: Aion 3.5 better than Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?
Neither wins outright: AionLabs: Aion 3.5 is the pick when you generate long outputs in one go, Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B when cost matters at scale. In short: AionLabs: Aion 3.5 when you generate long outputs in one go, you want the newer model; Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B when cost matters at scale, you need image input, you need seed (reproducible sampling), you need log-probabilities.
Which is cheaper, AionLabs: Aion 3.5 or Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?
Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is cheaper: $0.36 vs $3.75 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 90% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $31.25 against $345.
How much do AionLabs: Aion 3.5 and Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B cost per million tokens?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 costs $3.00 per 1M input tokens and $6.00 per 1M output tokens; Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B costs $0.15 input and $1.00 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.
Which has the bigger context window, AionLabs: Aion 3.5 or Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?
Both take 262K tokens per request — roughly 393 pages of text.
Do AionLabs: Aion 3.5 and Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B support function calling and JSON output?
Tool calling — AionLabs: Aion 3.5: yes, Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B: yes. JSON-schema structured output — AionLabs: Aion 3.5: yes, Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B: yes.
Can AionLabs: Aion 3.5 or Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B read images?
Only Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B accepts image input; AionLabs: Aion 3.5 is text-only for input.
Is AionLabs: Aion 3.5 or Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B 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 Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 can write up to 33K tokens (about 24,600 words) per response; Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B up to 16K (about 12,300 words).
When were AionLabs: Aion 3.5 and Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B released?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5 was listed on 2026-09-23; Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B on 2026-02-25.
Has the price of AionLabs: Aion 3.5 or Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B changed?
AionLabs: Aion 3.5: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-09-24. Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B: input price raised 47% ($0.08 → $0.15/1M), output price raised 25% ($0.75 → $1.00/1M) on 2026-10-14 (15 price changes since 2026-03-10).
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 →Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
The Qwen3.5 Series 35B-A3B is a native vision-language model designed with a hybrid architecture that integrates linear attention mechanisms and a sparse mixture-of-experts model, achieving higher inference efficiency. Its overall...
Full Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B specs →