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Aya Expanse 8B vs Grok 2

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 · Grok 2 specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceTie

    Neither model publishes per-token API pricing.

  • Context windowGrok 2

    Grok 2 accepts 128K tokens vs 8.2K, 15.6× 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.

  • ModalitiesGrok 2

    Grok 2 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); Grok 2 is API-only.

On balance Grok 2 edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Aya Expanse 8B's 1. Neither model publishes per-token API pricing. Grok 2 accepts 128K tokens vs 8.2K, 15.6× 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 Grok 2 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); Grok 2 is API-only.

Aya Expanse 8B is the newer of the two, released 2 months after Grok 2, 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 Grok 2 sees more deployments in chatbots. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecAya Expanse 8BGrok 2
ProviderCoherexAI
ReleasedOct 2024Aug 2024
Modalitiestexttext, vision
Context window8.2K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Output · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
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 ,
  • 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
  • Grok 2Pricing unavailable

Benchmarks compared

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

Benchmark scores not yet available. We only publish numbers we can source from official model cards or independent leaderboards, see methodology.
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 Grok 2 if

Grok 2 fits when…

  • Free on X Premium
  • Real-time data
  • Long-context tasks, handles 128K 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)Grok 2 vs Command R+ (08-2024)

Frequently asked

  • Is Aya Expanse 8B or Grok 2 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?
    Grok 2 accepts 128K tokens vs 8.2K for Aya Expanse 8B.
  • Is Aya Expanse 8B or Grok 2 better for coding?
    Both Aya Expanse 8B and Grok 2 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). Grok 2 is API-only.
  • When were Aya Expanse 8B and Grok 2 released?
    Aya Expanse 8B was released by Cohere on 2024-10-23. Grok 2 was released by xAI on 2024-08-13.
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