Aya Expanse 8B vs GPT-4.1
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 · GPT-4.1 specs- PriceGPT-4.1
GPT-4.1 publishes pricing ($8.00 / 1M output tokens) while Aya Expanse 8B does not.
- Context windowGPT-4.1
GPT-4.1 accepts 1M tokens vs 8.2K, 122.1× 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.
- ModalitiesGPT-4.1
GPT-4.1 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); GPT-4.1 is API-only.
On balance GPT-4.1 edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Aya Expanse 8B's 1. GPT-4.1 publishes pricing ($8.00 / 1M output tokens) while Aya Expanse 8B does not. GPT-4.1 accepts 1M tokens vs 8.2K, 122.1× 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 GPT-4.1 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); GPT-4.1 is API-only.
GPT-4.1 is the newer of the two, released 6 months after Aya Expanse 8B, 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 GPT-4.1 sees more deployments in long context and rag. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Aya Expanse 8B | GPT-4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Cohere | OpenAI |
| Released | Oct 2024 | Apr 2025 |
| Modalities | text | text, vision |
| Context window | 8.2K tokens | 1M tokens |
| Max output | , | 32.8K tokens |
| Input · 1M | Pricing not published | $2.00 / 1M tokens |
| Output · 1M | Pricing not published | $8.00 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | , | 2024-06 |
| Open weights | Yes (CC-BY-NC 4.0) | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
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 $18.00
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs $180
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, vs $348
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).
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
- GPT-4.1$0.600
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- MMLU,86.2
- HumanEval,90.6
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).
GPT-4.1 fits when…
- 1M-token context window, strong for long-doc workloads
- Mature SDK and tooling integrations
- Reliable JSON-mode and function-calling
- Long-context tasks, handles 1M tokens vs 8.2K for Aya Expanse 8B.
- Multimodal needs covering vision.
Consider Command R+ (08-2024)
Cohere's flagship optimized for RAG and tool use in enterprise settings.
Frequently asked
Is Aya Expanse 8B or GPT-4.1 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?
GPT-4.1 accepts 1M tokens vs 8.2K for Aya Expanse 8B.Is Aya Expanse 8B or GPT-4.1 better for coding?
Both Aya Expanse 8B and GPT-4.1 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). GPT-4.1 is API-only.When were Aya Expanse 8B and GPT-4.1 released?
Aya Expanse 8B was released by Cohere on 2024-10-23. GPT-4.1 was released by OpenAI on 2025-04-14.
The week's AI launches, in your inbox.
One short email every Friday, new models, leaks, and quietly-shipped APIs you missed.