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DBRX 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

DBRX 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 32K, 8.0× 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.

  • ModalitiesLlama 4 405B

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

  • OpennessTie

    Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

On balance Llama 4 405B edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against DBRX's 0. Neither model publishes per-token API pricing. Llama 4 405B accepts 256K tokens vs 32K, 8.0× 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 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 12 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 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

SpecDBRXLlama 4 405B
ProviderOtherMeta
ReleasedMar 2024Apr 2025
Modalitiestexttext, vision
Context window32K tokens256K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Output · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff,2024-12
Open weightsYes (Databricks Open Model License)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.

  • DBRXPricing 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.

DBRXLlama 4 405B
  • MMLU73.7
Pick DBRX if

DBRX fits when…

  • Databricks-native
  • Tuned for enterprise SQL/code
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 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-LightningLlama 4 405B vs Yi-Lightning

Frequently asked

  • Is DBRX 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 32K for DBRX.
  • Is DBRX or Llama 4 405B better for coding?
    Both DBRX 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. DBRX is licensed under Databricks Open Model License; Llama 4 405B under Llama 4 Community License.
  • When were DBRX and Llama 4 405B released?
    DBRX was released by Other on 2024-03-27. Llama 4 405B was released by Meta on 2025-04-05.
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