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Aya Expanse 8B vs Gemma 2 9B

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 · Gemma 2 9B specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceTie

    Neither model publishes per-token API pricing.

  • Context windowTie

    Both ship a 8.2K-token context window.

  • BenchmarksTie

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

  • ModalitiesTie

    Both handle text.

  • OpennessTie

    Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

It's a genuine coin-flip between Aya Expanse 8B and Gemma 2 9B: 0 category wins each, with the rest tied. Neither model publishes per-token API pricing. Both ship a 8.2K-token context window.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. Both target the same set of modalities (text), so the deciding factors are price, context, and raw quality. Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

Aya Expanse 8B is the newer of the two, released 4 months after Gemma 2 9B, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Aya Expanse 8B is usually picked for multilingual and translation workloads, while Gemma 2 9B sees more deployments in on device and edge deployment. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecAya Expanse 8BGemma 2 9B
ProviderCohereGoogle
ReleasedOct 2024Jun 2024
Modalitiestexttext
Context window8.2K tokens8.2K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Output · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsYes (CC-BY-NC 4.0)Yes (Gemma License)
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 ,
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs ,
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, vs ,

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
  • Gemma 2 9BPricing unavailable

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 8BGemma 2 9B
  • MMLU,71.3
Pick Aya Expanse 8B if

Aya Expanse 8B fits when…

  • Multilingual at small size
  • Strong cross-lingual transfer
  • Efficient on commodity GPUs
Pick Gemma 2 9B if

Gemma 2 9B fits when…

  • Strong 9B-class quality
  • Wide tooling
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)Gemma 2 9B vs Command R+ (08-2024)

Frequently asked

  • Is Aya Expanse 8B or Gemma 2 9B 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?
    Both Aya Expanse 8B and Gemma 2 9B ship a 8.2K-token context window.
  • Is Aya Expanse 8B or Gemma 2 9B better for coding?
    Both Aya Expanse 8B and Gemma 2 9B 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?
    Both ship with open weights. Aya Expanse 8B is licensed under CC-BY-NC 4.0; Gemma 2 9B under Gemma License.
  • When were Aya Expanse 8B and Gemma 2 9B released?
    Aya Expanse 8B was released by Cohere on 2024-10-23. Gemma 2 9B was released by Google on 2024-06-27.
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