Aion 3.5 Mini is a cost-efficient, text-only LLM from AionLabs, optimized for storytelling and roleplay via collaborative generation, with tool use and web search.
curl https://api.venice.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $VENICE_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "aion-labs-aion-3-5-mini",
"messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Explain quantum tunneling simply." }]
}'Overview
Aion 3.5 Mini is a text-only large language model from AionLabs, released on September 23, 2026. It uses a multi-model collaborative generation system tuned for storytelling and roleplay, supports function calling and web search, and runs with a 256K-token context window on Venice at low per-token pricing.
On Venice, Aion 3.5 Mini runs with anonymized privacy—your prompts are never stored or profiled. This means you get uncensored, permissionless access to a model built for immersive narrative generation, with full tool use and reasoning, all without leaving a trace. It’s ideal for writers and developers who want private, cost-effective AI storytelling.
Agent quickstart
The API is OpenAI-compatible: change the base URL and the model id and existing client code works unchanged.
curl https://api.venice.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $VENICE_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "aion-labs-aion-3-5-mini",
"stream": true,
"messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Draft the release note." }]
}'curl https://api.venice.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $VENICE_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "aion-labs-aion-3-5-mini",
"messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Find the rate limits." }],
"tools": [{
"type": "function",
"function": {
"name": "search_docs",
"description": "Search the API documentation.",
"parameters": {
"type": "object",
"properties": { "query": { "type": "string" } },
"required": ["query"]
}
}
}],
"tool_choice": "auto"
}'import os
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
api_key=os.environ["VENICE_API_KEY"],
base_url="https://api.venice.ai/api/v1",
)
resp = client.chat.completions.create(
model="aion-labs-aion-3-5-mini",
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Build without permission."}],
)
print(resp.choices[0].message.content)Specifications
Assessment
Use cases
Prompting
Use explicit roleplay directives (e.g., 'Act as a noir detective') to activate narrative strengths.
Enable reasoning mode for complex logic or multi-step planning tasks.
Include tool definitions in JSON schema format for reliable function calling.
Break long prompts into logical segments—model handles 256K context but performs best with focused input.
Use web search capability to ground responses in real-time information when enabled.
Set response_format to JSON to ensure structured output for downstream parsing.
Alternatives
| Model | Best for | Context | Open weights | Price (Venice) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aion 3.5 Mini | Storytelling & roleplay | 262K tokens | No | $0.88 in · $1.75 out / 1M |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Balanced performance | 1M tokens | No | $3.60 in · $18 out / 1M |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Speed & open weights | 1M tokens | Yes | $0.38 in · $1.50 out / 1M |
| Google Gemma 4 31B Instruct | Open & efficient | 256K tokens | Yes | $0.12 in · $0.36 out / 1M |
Aion 3.5 Mini is the right pick for private, narrative-driven AI interactions where storytelling structure and roleplay matter more than raw benchmark scores. It undercuts most rivals on cost while offering tool use and web search—ideal for developers and writers who want expressive, low-latency AI without surveillance.
Pricing
Billed per token on Venice: $0.88 per 1M input tokens and $1.75 per 1M output tokens.
New Venice accounts include a free daily allowance and 500 welcome credits — no credit card required.
Getting a key
Create a key in API settings. Nothing else is required to start.
Export it as VENICE_API_KEY so the snippets above run unedited.
Point an existing OpenAI client at https://api.venice.ai/api/v1. The scheme is part of the value: an OpenAI client given a bare host does not resolve it.
Pass aion-labs-aion-3-5-mini as the model and send the request.
FAQ
Aion 3.5 Mini is a text-only LLM from AionLabs, released on September 23, 2026. It uses a collaborative multi-model system optimized for storytelling and roleplay, with support for function calling, web search, and structured output. It runs on Venice with a 256K context window and anonymized privacy.
On Venice, Aion 3.5 Mini costs $0.88 per million input tokens and $1.75 per million output tokens. Cached input is priced at $0.23 per million tokens, making repeated queries more efficient.
No. Aion 3.5 Mini is a proprietary model developed by AionLabs. It is not open source or freely available for self-hosting. You can access it via API on Venice with pay-per-token pricing.
Yes. Aion 3.5 Mini supports tool use and function calling, allowing it to interact with external systems, APIs, and data sources as part of agentic workflows.
Aion 3.5 Mini supports a context window of 256,000 tokens, enabling long conversations, document analysis, and extended narrative generation without losing coherence.
Aion 3.5 Mini excels in narrative structure and roleplay due to its collaborative generation design, while DeepSeek V4.1 Flash offers open weights and lower input cost. Choose Aion for storytelling; DeepSeek for transparency and cost-sensitive general tasks.
No. Aion 3.5 Mini is text-only. It does not support image, audio, or video input or output. It is designed specifically for text-based storytelling, reasoning, and tool-augmented workflows.
One key, free to start, no credit card.