The closest alternative to Aion-RP 1.0 (8B) is Aion-2.0 — comparable intelligence (— vs —); for a cheaper option, MiniMax M3 runs $0.300/M vs $0.800/M; for more speed, Morph V3 Large hits 3.1k t/s; and the best open-weight substitute is MiniMax M3.
Aion-2.0 is the closest alternative to Aion-RP 1.0 (8B), with an Intelligence Index of — (Aion-RP 1.0 (8B) scores —) at $0.800 per million input tokens.
Yes — MiniMax M3 costs $0.300 per million input tokens versus $0.800 for Aion-RP 1.0 (8B), while staying within ~8 points of its Intelligence Index.
MiniMax M3 is the strongest open-weight alternative to Aion-RP 1.0 (8B) — downloadable from Hugging Face and self-hostable, scoring 54.7 on intelligence.