API cost decision in 10 seconds

NewMoondream 3.1 vs Pareto 26.10 Preview

Pick Moondream 3.1 for lower cost; pick Pareto 26.10 Preview only if the larger context window matters more.

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 Moondream 3.1 for lower cost; pick Pareto 26.10 Preview only if the larger context window matters more.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Moondream 3.1 is estimated at $1.55 vs $2.4 for Pareto 26.10 Preview, saving $0.85 (35.4% lower).

Cost-first pickMoondream 3.1

Context-first pickPareto 26.10 Preview

Sample savings$0.8535.4%

10x traffic gap$8.5

Pareto 26.10 Preview has more context, but Moondream 3.1 saves $0.85 on the standard workload. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $8.5. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

Moondream 3.1 stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	Moondream 3.1	Pareto 26.10 Preview
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Moondream 3.1	$2.75	$5.6
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Moondream 3.1	$2.8	$4
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Moondream 3.1	$12.8	$16.8

Cheaper input Moondream 3.1 $0.3 vs $0.8 / 1M

Moondream 3.1 is $0.5 cheaper per 1M input tokens (62.5% lower; 2.67x difference).

Cheaper output Moondream 3.1 $2.5 vs $3.2 / 1M

Moondream 3.1 is $0.7 cheaper per 1M output tokens (21.9% lower; 1.28x difference).

Larger context Pareto 26.10 Preview 32K vs 1.05M

Pareto 26.10 Preview has 1.02M more context (32.8x larger).

Sample workload Moondream 3.1 $1.55 vs $2.4

Moondream 3.1 is $0.85 cheaper on the standard workload (35.4% lower).

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

Pareto 26.10 Preview 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

Moondream 3.1 has the lower input price; Moondream 3.1 has the lower output price; Pareto 26.10 Preview offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Moondream 3.1 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 $2.4 for Pareto 26.10 Preview.

Best Fit

Choose Moondream 3.1 when you care most about lower input-token price, and lower output-token price.

Choose Pareto 26.10 Preview when you care most about larger context window.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Moondream 3.1 is estimated at $1.55 vs $2.4 for Pareto 26.10 Preview, saving $0.85 (35.4% lower).
Moondream 3.1 is $0.85 cheaper on the standard workload (35.4% lower).
Moondream 3.1 is $0.5 cheaper per 1M input tokens (62.5% lower; 2.67x difference).
Moondream 3.1 is $0.7 cheaper per 1M output tokens (21.9% lower; 1.28x difference).
Pareto 26.10 Preview has 1.02M more context (32.8x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	NewMoondream 3.1 (Moondream)	Pareto 26.10 Preview (unbiased)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0.3	$0.8
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$2.5	$3.2
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$1.55	$2.4
Context Window	32K	1.05M
Release Date	2026-10-15	2026-10-01

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Moondream 3.1	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Moondream 3.1 is estimated at $1.55 vs $2.4 for Pareto 26.10 Preview, saving $0.85 (35.4% lower).
High-volume input processing	Moondream 3.1	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Moondream 3.1	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	Pareto 26.10 Preview	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

Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
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.

Popular competitors

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash · DeepSeek · #1
Step 5 Preview · StepFun · #2
GLM 5.3 Flash · Z.ai · #3
MiMo-V2.6-Flash · Xiaomi · #4

Cheaper alternatives

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Provider catalogs

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Moondream catalog

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unbiased 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...

Pareto 26.10 Preview

Pareto is a multimodal composite model built for research, coding, and agentic workflows, while delivering frontier-level performance across a broad range of general-purpose tasks. This is a preview of the...