When designing a gas driven heat pump, the selection of the cycle impacts both on complexity and efficiency. Among absorption cycles, the nominal efficiency usually increases with complexity. However, heat pumps are required to operate over a wide range of conditions, of different temperatures and capacity. In this research, three alternative cycles, i.e single-effect (SE), generator-absorber heat-exchange (GAX) and vapor-exchange (VX) for a gas-driven air-source ammonia-water absorption heat pump are compared, considering small-scale space heating as target application. For each cycle, both full-load under various temperature conditions and seasonal performances are predicted by means of numerical simulations. Small capacity appliances are usually equipped with fixed geometry restrictors, meaning that the solution mass flow rate is driven by the pressure difference across the associated restrictor valve. This feature is included in the modeling assumption as it affects the temperature of the generator and, ultimately, the performance at the various conditions. At full load, the VX cycle resulted to achieve the highest Gas Utilization Efficiency (GUE), followed by the GAX and SE. The differences among the cycles are higher at low thermal lift conditions, where the GAX effect is achieved in both the GAX and VX cycles, while are limited at high thermal lift. Looking at the seasonal performances, calculated on the basis of the method prescribed in the European standard EN 12309, the differences among the cycles became much narrower, with the Seasonal GUE ranging between 1.427 (SE) and 1.493 (VX). The small differences in terms of seasonal performances are explained considering that, in the prescribed working conditions, the GAX effect is only partially exploited.