Aion-3.0-Mini vs Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base comes out ahead, 45 to 41 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Aion Labs
Aion-3.0-Mini
41/100- ECI—
- Price$0.70 / $1.40
- Context131K
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base
45/100- ECI—
- Price$0.54 / $1.33
- Context262K
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Make it a three-way comparison.
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base is our pick
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base is the better all-round choice, scoring 45/100 against Aion-3.0-Mini (41). It leads on price and context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
- CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
- Lowest priceQwen3.5 35B-A3B BaseQwen3.5 35B-A3B Base $0.739 · Aion-3.0-Mini $0.875 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3.5 35B-A3B BaseQwen3.5 35B-A3B Base 262,144 · Aion-3.0-Mini 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.5 35B-A3B BaseAion-3.0-Mini: Text · Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base: Text, Images, Video
- Self-hostingQwen3.5 35B-A3B BasePublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Aion-3.0-Mini | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 50 | 54 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 35 | 35 |
| Context window | 20% | 25 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 41/100 | 45/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Aion-3.0-MiniAion Labs | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B BaseAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.70 | $0.54 (best) |
| Output | $1.40 | $1.33 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.875 | $0.739 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 4 providers | Median of 1 providers |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 32,768 tokens | 65,536 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | No |
| Structured output | No | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenApache-2.0 |
| API model ID | — | — |
| API providers | 4 (best) | 1 |
| Released | May 14, 2026 | Feb 24, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Aion-3.0-Mini$9.80
- Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base$8.07
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Aion-3.0-Mini or Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base?
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base is the better all-round choice, scoring 45/100 against Aion-3.0-Mini (41). It leads on price and context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, Aion-3.0-Mini or Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base?
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base is cheaper at $0.54 input / $1.33 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Aion-3.0-Mini costs $0.70 input / $1.40 output per million tokens (median across 4 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.739 per million tokens for Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base versus $0.875 for Aion-3.0-Mini (1.2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Aion-3.0-Mini has not been scored yet and Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Aion-3.0-Mini and Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 131,072 for Aion-3.0-Mini. Maximum output per response: Aion-3.0-Mini up to 32,768, Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base up to 65,536 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Aion-3.0-Mini accepts text; Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base accepts text, images and video. Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Aion-3.0-Mini is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Aion-3.0-Mini is the newest, released May 14, 2026. Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base came out Feb 24, 2026.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Nov 2, 2026.
