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Aya Expanse 8B vs Claude 3.5 Sonnet

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

Aya Expanse 8B specs · Claude 3.5 Sonnet specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceClaude 3.5 Sonnet

    Claude 3.5 Sonnet publishes pricing ($15.00 / 1M output tokens) while Aya Expanse 8B does not.

  • Context windowClaude 3.5 Sonnet

    Claude 3.5 Sonnet accepts 200K tokens vs 8.2K, 24.4× the room for long documents and codebases.

  • BenchmarksTie

    No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.

  • ModalitiesClaude 3.5 Sonnet

    Claude 3.5 Sonnet supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Aya Expanse 8B.

  • OpennessAya Expanse 8B

    Aya Expanse 8B ships open weights (CC-BY-NC 4.0); Claude 3.5 Sonnet is API-only.

On balance Claude 3.5 Sonnet edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Aya Expanse 8B's 1. Claude 3.5 Sonnet publishes pricing ($15.00 / 1M output tokens) while Aya Expanse 8B does not. Claude 3.5 Sonnet accepts 200K tokens vs 8.2K, 24.4× the room for long documents and codebases.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, Aya Expanse 8B handles text while Claude 3.5 Sonnet handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Aya Expanse 8B ships open weights (CC-BY-NC 4.0); Claude 3.5 Sonnet is API-only.

Both shipped within roughly a month of each other in 2024, so they share the same generation of training data and tooling. Aya Expanse 8B is usually picked for multilingual and translation workloads, while Claude 3.5 Sonnet sees more deployments in coding llm and code review. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecAya Expanse 8BClaude 3.5 Sonnet
ProviderCohereAnthropic
ReleasedOct 2024Oct 2024
Modalitiestexttext, vision
Context window8.2K tokens200K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not published$3.00 / 1M tokens
Output · 1MPricing not published$15.00 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsYes (CC-BY-NC 4.0)No
API availableYesYes

Pricing at scale

What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day, vs $31.50
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs $315
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, vs $540

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Aya Expanse 8BPricing unavailable
  • Claude 3.5 Sonnet$1.05

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

Aya Expanse 8BClaude 3.5 Sonnet
  • HumanEval,92.0
Pick Aya Expanse 8B if

Aya Expanse 8B fits when…

  • Multilingual at small size
  • Strong cross-lingual transfer
  • Efficient on commodity GPUs
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (CC-BY-NC 4.0).
Pick Claude 3.5 Sonnet if

Claude 3.5 Sonnet fits when…

  • Mature and battle-tested
  • Strong code
  • Long-context tasks, handles 200K tokens vs 8.2K for Aya Expanse 8B.
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Don't want either?

Consider Command R+ (08-2024)

Cohere's flagship optimized for RAG and tool use in enterprise settings.

See Command R+ (08-2024) specsAya Expanse 8B vs Command R+ (08-2024)Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Command R+ (08-2024)

Frequently asked

  • Is Aya Expanse 8B or Claude 3.5 Sonnet cheaper?
    Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Claude 3.5 Sonnet accepts 200K tokens vs 8.2K for Aya Expanse 8B.
  • Is Aya Expanse 8B or Claude 3.5 Sonnet better for coding?
    Both Aya Expanse 8B and Claude 3.5 Sonnet are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.
  • Are either of these models open source?
    Aya Expanse 8B ships open weights (CC-BY-NC 4.0). Claude 3.5 Sonnet is API-only.
  • When were Aya Expanse 8B and Claude 3.5 Sonnet released?
    Aya Expanse 8B was released by Cohere on 2024-10-23. Claude 3.5 Sonnet was released by Anthropic on 2024-10-22.
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