API cost decision in 10 seconds

NewMoondream 3.1 vs Union Alpha

Pick Union Alpha when budget and context both matter.

Page updated: 2026-10-15T23:07:47Z Data confirmed: 2026-10-16T00:07:46Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Union Alpha when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Union Alpha is estimated at $0 vs $1.55 for Moondream 3.1, saving $1.55 (100% lower).

Cost-first pickUnion Alpha

Context-first pickUnion Alpha

Sample savings$1.55100%

10x traffic gap$15.5

Union Alpha is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $15.5. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

Union Alpha stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	Moondream 3.1	Union Alpha
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Union Alpha	$2.75	$0
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Union Alpha	$2.8	$0
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Union Alpha	$12.8	$0

Cheaper input Union Alpha $0.3 vs $0 / 1M

Union Alpha is free for input tokens while Moondream 3.1 costs $0.3 per 1M tokens.

Cheaper output Union Alpha $2.5 vs $0 / 1M

Union Alpha is free for output tokens while Moondream 3.1 costs $2.5 per 1M tokens.

Larger context Union Alpha 32K vs 262.14K

Union Alpha has 230.14K more context (8.19x larger).

Sample workload Union Alpha $1.55 vs $0

Union Alpha is free for the standard workload while the other model is estimated at $1.55.

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

Moondream 3.1 Calculating… Estimated API cost

Union Alpha Calculating… Estimated API cost

Cheaper for this workload Calculating… Difference: calculating…

This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.

Quick Decision

Verdict

Union Alpha has the lower input price; Union Alpha has the lower output price; Union Alpha offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Union Alpha is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $1.55 for Moondream 3.1 and $0 for Union Alpha.

Best Fit

Choose Moondream 3.1 when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Choose Union Alpha when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Union Alpha is estimated at $0 vs $1.55 for Moondream 3.1, saving $1.55 (100% lower).
Union Alpha is free for the standard workload while the other model is estimated at $1.55.
Union Alpha is free for input tokens while Moondream 3.1 costs $0.3 per 1M tokens.
Union Alpha is free for output tokens while Moondream 3.1 costs $2.5 per 1M tokens.
Union Alpha has 230.14K more context (8.19x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	NewMoondream 3.1 (Moondream)	Union Alpha (stealth)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0.3	$0
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$2.5	$0
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$1.55	$0
Context Window	32K	262.14K
Release Date	2026-10-15	2026-09-16

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Union Alpha	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Union Alpha is estimated at $0 vs $1.55 for Moondream 3.1, saving $1.55 (100% lower).
High-volume input processing	Union Alpha	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Union Alpha	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	Union Alpha	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

No lower-cost same-provider swap is currently tracked for this pair.

Larger context near this budget

Llama 4 Scout offers 1.31M context with $0.47 sample workload cost.
MiMo-V2.6-Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.28 sample workload cost.
GPT-6 Luna offers 1.05M context with $0.35 sample workload cost.
GPT-6 Luna Pro offers 1.05M context with $0.35 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

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GLM 5.3 Flash · Z.ai · #3
MiMo-V2.6-Flash · Xiaomi · #4

Cheaper alternatives

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Larger context alternatives

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Provider catalogs

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Moondream catalog

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stealth catalog

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Moondream 3.1

Moondream 3.1 is a vision-language model from Moondream, the successor to Moondream 3 Preview, with 9B total parameters and 2B active (mixture-of-experts). It handles visual question answering, captioning, OCR, and...

Union Alpha

Union Alpha is a multimodal model built for research, coding, and agentic workflows, while delivering frontier-level performance across a broad range of general-purpose tasks. Union Alpha is a stealth model....