Ternary Bonsai 2 9B is $0.22 cheaper per 1M input tokens (73.3% lower; 3.75x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
NewTernary Bonsai 2 9B vs NewMoondream 3 Preview
Pick Ternary Bonsai 2 9B when budget and context both matter.
Page updated:
Data confirmed:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick Ternary Bonsai 2 9B when budget and context both matter.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Ternary Bonsai 2 9B is estimated at $0.15 vs $1.55 for Moondream 3 Preview, saving $1.41 (90.6% lower).
Cost-first pickTernary Bonsai 2 9B
Context-first pickTernary Bonsai 2 9B
Sample savings$1.4190.6%
10x traffic gap$14.05
Ternary Bonsai 2 9B is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $14.05. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Ternary Bonsai 2 9B stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | Ternary Bonsai 2 9B | Moondream 3 Preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Ternary Bonsai 2 9B | $0.47 | $2.75 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Ternary Bonsai 2 9B | $0.21 | $2.8 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Ternary Bonsai 2 9B | $0.73 | $12.8 |
Ternary Bonsai 2 9B is $2.37 cheaper per 1M output tokens (94.8% lower; 19.2x difference).
Ternary Bonsai 2 9B has 230.14K more context (8.19x larger).
Ternary Bonsai 2 9B is $1.41 cheaper on the standard workload (90.6% lower).
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
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
Ternary Bonsai 2 9B has the lower input price; Ternary Bonsai 2 9B has the lower output price; Ternary Bonsai 2 9B offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Ternary Bonsai 2 9B is cheaper for the standard workload.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0.15 for Ternary Bonsai 2 9B and $1.55 for Moondream 3 Preview.
Choose Ternary Bonsai 2 9B when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.
Choose Moondream 3 Preview when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Ternary Bonsai 2 9B is estimated at $0.15 vs $1.55 for Moondream 3 Preview, saving $1.41 (90.6% lower).
- Ternary Bonsai 2 9B is $1.41 cheaper on the standard workload (90.6% lower).
- Ternary Bonsai 2 9B is $0.22 cheaper per 1M input tokens (73.3% lower; 3.75x difference).
- Ternary Bonsai 2 9B is $2.37 cheaper per 1M output tokens (94.8% lower; 19.2x difference).
- Ternary Bonsai 2 9B has 230.14K more context (8.19x larger).
| Feature | NewTernary Bonsai 2 9B (PrismML) | NewMoondream 3 Preview (Moondream) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $0.08 | $0.3 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $0.13 | $2.5 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $0.15 | $1.55 |
| Context Window | 262.14K | 32K |
| Release Date |
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | Ternary Bonsai 2 9B | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Ternary Bonsai 2 9B is estimated at $0.15 vs $1.55 for Moondream 3 Preview, saving $1.41 (90.6% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | Ternary Bonsai 2 9B | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | Ternary Bonsai 2 9B | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | Ternary Bonsai 2 9B | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- No lower-cost same-provider swap is currently tracked for this pair.
- Llama 4 Scout offers 1.31M context with $0.25 sample workload cost.
- GPT-6 Luna offers 1.05M context with $0.35 sample workload cost.
- MiMo-V2.6-Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.28 sample workload cost.
- GPT-6.1 Terra Pro (batch) offers 1.05M context with $1.75 sample workload cost.
- Kimi K3.1 Pro · MoonshotAI · #1
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 · DeepSeek · #2
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash · DeepSeek · #3
- GLM 5.3 Flash · Z.ai · #4
Cheaper alternatives
Review low-cost models sorted by a standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.
Open cheapest modelsLarger context alternatives
Find models with larger context windows for RAG, long documents, and codebase review.
Open largest context modelsProvider catalogs
Compare models within provider hubs before choosing a final API vendor.
Open provider hubsPrismML catalog
Review all tracked PrismML models before deciding whether this matchup is the right shortlist.
Open PrismML modelsMoondream catalog
Check other Moondream models with comparable pricing, context, or release timing.
Open Moondream modelsTernary Bonsai 2 9B is PrismML’s compact, open-weight language model for conversational AI, reasoning, and tool use. Built on Qwen3.5, it uses ternary weights packed into 2 bits for efficient...
Moondream 3 Preview is a vision-language model from Moondream with 9B total parameters and 2B active (mixture-of-experts). It handles visual question answering, captioning, OCR, and visual reasoning over images, with...