LLM·Dex
Newsletter

Aya Expanse 8B vs Llama 4 405B

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 · Llama 4 405B specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceTie

    Neither model publishes per-token API pricing.

  • Context windowLlama 4 405B

    Llama 4 405B accepts 256K tokens vs 8.2K, 31.3× 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.

  • ModalitiesLlama 4 405B

    Llama 4 405B supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Aya Expanse 8B.

  • OpennessTie

    Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

On balance Llama 4 405B edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Aya Expanse 8B's 0. Neither model publishes per-token API pricing. Llama 4 405B accepts 256K tokens vs 8.2K, 31.3× 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 Llama 4 405B handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

Llama 4 405B is the newer of the two, released 5 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 Llama 4 405B sees more deployments in open source llm and fine tuning. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecAya Expanse 8BLlama 4 405B
ProviderCohereMeta
ReleasedOct 2024Apr 2025
Modalitiestexttext, vision
Context window8.2K tokens256K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Output · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff,2024-12
Open weightsYes (CC-BY-NC 4.0)Yes (Llama 4 Community 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
  • Llama 4 405BPricing 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
Pick Llama 4 405B if

Llama 4 405B fits when…

  • Strongest open-weight model at launch
  • Multimodal (text + vision)
  • Wide hosting availability
  • Long-context tasks, handles 256K 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)Llama 4 405B vs Command R+ (08-2024)

Frequently asked

  • Is Aya Expanse 8B or Llama 4 405B 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?
    Llama 4 405B accepts 256K tokens vs 8.2K for Aya Expanse 8B.
  • Is Aya Expanse 8B or Llama 4 405B better for coding?
    Both Aya Expanse 8B and Llama 4 405B 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; Llama 4 405B under Llama 4 Community License.
  • When were Aya Expanse 8B and Llama 4 405B released?
    Aya Expanse 8B was released by Cohere on 2024-10-23. Llama 4 405B was released by Meta on 2025-04-05.
Friday digest

The week's AI launches, in your inbox.

One short email every Friday, new models, leaks, and quietly-shipped APIs you missed.