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DBRX vs Llama 4 8B

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 8B specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceTie

    Neither model publishes per-token API pricing.

  • Context windowLlama 4 8B

    Llama 4 8B 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.

  • ModalitiesTie

    Both handle text.

  • OpennessTie

    Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

On balance Llama 4 8B edges ahead, winning 1 of 5 categories against DBRX's 0. Neither model publishes per-token API pricing. Llama 4 8B 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. Both target the same set of modalities (text), so the deciding factors are price, context, and raw quality. Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

Llama 4 8B 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 8B sees more deployments in local llm and on device. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecDBRXLlama 4 8B
ProviderOtherMeta
ReleasedMar 2024Apr 2025
Modalitiestexttext
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)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 8BPricing 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 8B
  • MMLU73.7
Pick DBRX if

DBRX fits when…

  • Databricks-native
  • Tuned for enterprise SQL/code
Pick Llama 4 8B if

Llama 4 8B fits when…

  • Runs on consumer laptops
  • Broad tooling support
  • Apache-2-adjacent permissiveness for most uses
  • Long-context tasks, handles 128K tokens vs 32K for DBRX.
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 8B vs Yi-Lightning

Frequently asked

  • Is DBRX or Llama 4 8B 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 8B accepts 128K tokens vs 32K for DBRX.
  • Is DBRX or Llama 4 8B better for coding?
    Both DBRX and Llama 4 8B 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 8B under Llama 4 Community License.
  • When were DBRX and Llama 4 8B released?
    DBRX was released by Other on 2024-03-27. Llama 4 8B was released by Meta on 2025-04-05.
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