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DBRX 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

DBRX specs · Grok 2 specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceTie

    Neither model publishes per-token API pricing.

  • Context windowGrok 2

    Grok 2 accepts 128K tokens vs 32K, 4.0× 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 DBRX.

  • OpennessDBRX

    DBRX ships open weights (Databricks Open Model License); Grok 2 is API-only.

On balance Grok 2 edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against DBRX's 1. Neither model publishes per-token API pricing. Grok 2 accepts 128K tokens vs 32K, 4.0× 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, DBRX handles text while Grok 2 handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. DBRX ships open weights (Databricks Open Model License); Grok 2 is API-only.

Grok 2 is the newer of the two, released 5 months after DBRX, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. DBRX is usually picked for enterprise llm and sql generation 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

SpecDBRXGrok 2
ProviderOtherxAI
ReleasedMar 2024Aug 2024
Modalitiestexttext, vision
Context window32K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Output · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsYes (Databricks Open Model License)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.

  • DBRXPricing 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.

DBRXGrok 2
  • MMLU73.7
Pick DBRX if

DBRX fits when…

  • Databricks-native
  • Tuned for enterprise SQL/code
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Databricks Open Model License).
Pick Grok 2 if

Grok 2 fits when…

  • Free on X Premium
  • Real-time data
  • Long-context tasks, handles 128K tokens vs 32K for DBRX.
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Don't want either?

Consider Yi-Lightning

01.AI's API-tier Chinese-leaning model, strong on Chinese benchmarks at competitive pricing.

See Yi-Lightning specsDBRX vs Yi-LightningGrok 2 vs Yi-Lightning

Frequently asked

  • Is DBRX 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 32K for DBRX.
  • Is DBRX or Grok 2 better for coding?
    Both DBRX 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?
    DBRX ships open weights (Databricks Open Model License). Grok 2 is API-only.
  • When were DBRX and Grok 2 released?
    DBRX was released by Other on 2024-03-27. Grok 2 was released by xAI on 2024-08-13.
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