// alternatives · October 2026
Particle-1 alternatives
Cheaper models that come close, budget substitutes, and the cheapest step up — chosen on published LiveBench scores and live list price, never on our opinion. Every model here supports tool calling and image input, as Particle-1 does.
LiveBench hasn't published a run for Particle-1. The strongest benchmarked model at a similar or lower price is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017, scoring 74.0 overall.
Particle-1: no published LiveBench run, $0.438 per 1M blended tokens, about $172.00/mo for a RAG assistant.
Benchmarked models at or below its price
Particle-1 has no published LiveBench run, so these are the highest-scoring benchmarked models priced no more than 25% above it — a known quantity to test against.
| Model | Overall | vs Particle-1 | Blended / 1M | RAG assistant | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017deepseek 40% cheaper. Head to head → | 74.0 | — | $0.262−40% | $97.20/mo | 1.0M |
| Claude Haiku 5.5anthropic 54% cheaper. Head to head → | 69.8 | — | $0.200−54% | $74.00/mo | 1M |
| MiMo-V2.6-Proxiaomi 24% more expensive. Head to head → | 68.5 | — | $0.544 | $227.64/mo | 1.1M |
| MiniMax M3.1 Flashminimax 40% cheaper. Head to head → | 66.9 | — | $0.262−40% | $102.00/mo | 1.0M |
| GPT-6 Lunaopenai 54% cheaper. Head to head → | 64.6 | — | $0.200−54% | $74.00/mo | 1.1M |
| GLM 5.3 Flashz-ai 90% cheaper. Head to head → | 62.1 | — | $0.045−90% | $26.97/mo | 1.0M |
Particle-1 alternatives FAQ
What is the best alternative to Particle-1?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017. 40% cheaper. Every suggestion supports tool calling and image input, like Particle-1.
How alternatives are chosen
- Scores — LiveBench release 2026-10-25. Only models with a published run are suggested on quality; a missing model means “not evaluated”, not “worse”.
- Prices — live list prices from OpenRouter, blended 3:1 input:output. Monthly figures price a RAG assistant with the published cached-input rate where there is one.
- Same job — suggestions must support every capability Particle-1 has among tool calling and image input. Other listings of the same model (free or batch tiers) are variants, not alternatives, and are left out.
A few points on a public benchmark can hide large differences on your own tasks. Shortlist here, then decide with an eval — how to build one.