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Claude 3.5 Haiku vs Yi-Lightning

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

Updated

Claude 3.5 Haiku specs · Yi-Lightning specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceYi-Lightning

    Yi-Lightning is roughly 28.6× cheaper on output tokens ($0.14 vs $4.00 per 1M).

  • Context windowClaude 3.5 Haiku

    Claude 3.5 Haiku accepts 200K tokens vs 16K, 12.5× 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 Haiku

    Claude 3.5 Haiku supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Yi-Lightning.

  • OpennessTie

    Both are closed-weight, API-only.

On balance Claude 3.5 Haiku edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Yi-Lightning's 1. Yi-Lightning is roughly 28.6× cheaper on output tokens ($0.14 vs $4.00 per 1M). Claude 3.5 Haiku accepts 200K tokens vs 16K, 12.5× 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, Claude 3.5 Haiku handles text, vision while Yi-Lightning handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Both are closed-weight, API-only.

Both shipped within roughly a month of each other in 2024, so they share the same generation of training data and tooling. Claude 3.5 Haiku is usually picked for customer support and code completion workloads, while Yi-Lightning sees more deployments in chinese llm and cheapest llm. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecClaude 3.5 HaikuYi-Lightning
ProviderAnthropicOther
ReleasedNov 2024Oct 2024
Modalitiestext, visiontext
Context window200K tokens16K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$0.80 / 1M tokens$0.14 / 1M tokens
Output · 1M$4.00 / 1M tokens$0.14 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsNoNo
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$8.40 vs $0.630
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$84.00 vs $6.30
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$144 vs $21.84

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $8.40 vs $0.630 per month, model B comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $84.00 vs $6.30 per month, model B comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $144 vs $21.84 per month, model B comes out ahead.

Price calculator

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

  • Claude 3.5 Haiku$0.280
  • Yi-Lightning$0.021

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 Claude 3.5 Haiku if

Claude 3.5 Haiku fits when…

  • Fast
  • Cheap for Anthropic
  • Strong code at small size
  • Long-context tasks, handles 200K tokens vs 16K for Yi-Lightning.
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Pick Yi-Lightning if

Yi-Lightning fits when…

  • Cheap
  • Strong Chinese
  • Fast
  • Cost-sensitive workloads, 28.6× cheaper than Claude 3.5 Haiku on output tokens.
Don't want either?

Consider Claude Opus 4.7

Anthropic's mid-2026 flagship, ahead on SWE-bench, agent reliability, and writing quality.

See Claude Opus 4.7 specsClaude 3.5 Haiku vs Claude Opus 4.7Yi-Lightning vs Claude Opus 4.7

Frequently asked

  • Is Claude 3.5 Haiku or Yi-Lightning cheaper?
    Yi-Lightning is cheaper at $0.14 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $4.00 / 1M tokens for Claude 3.5 Haiku.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Claude 3.5 Haiku accepts 200K tokens vs 16K for Yi-Lightning.
  • Is Claude 3.5 Haiku or Yi-Lightning better for coding?
    Both Claude 3.5 Haiku and Yi-Lightning 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?
    Neither model ships open weights, both are accessible only via their respective providers' APIs.
  • When were Claude 3.5 Haiku and Yi-Lightning released?
    Claude 3.5 Haiku was released by Anthropic on 2024-11-04. Yi-Lightning was released by Other on 2024-10-16.
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