The non-aqueous sol-gel synthesis of aluminum zinc oxide (AZO) nanocrystals with controllable sizes and morphologies at comparatively low temperatures is presented. By varying the reaction chemistry, customized aluminum zinc oxide nanorods and nanospheres with adjustable composition and tailored morphology between 0-D and 1-D were obtained. We furthermore show that the band gap can be engineered by the Al content. Additionally, the growth kinetics and the influence of various process parameters such as the reaction temperature and precursor concentration as well as the scale-up from a 45 mL autoclave to a 500 mL reactor were investigated.Aluminum zinc oxide (AZO) nanocrystals with customized sizes and shapes were synthesized by non-aqueous reaction at moderate temperatures. The obtained morphology can be correlated with the solvent chemistry, with benzyl alcohol resulting in 1-D nanostructures whilst benzylamine leads to spherical nanoparticles.