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DBRX 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

DBRX specs · Yi-Lightning specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceYi-Lightning

    Yi-Lightning publishes pricing ($0.14 / 1M output tokens) while DBRX does not.

  • Context windowDBRX

    DBRX accepts 32K tokens vs 16K, 2.0× 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.

  • OpennessDBRX

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

On balance DBRX edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Yi-Lightning's 1. Yi-Lightning publishes pricing ($0.14 / 1M output tokens) while DBRX does not. DBRX accepts 32K tokens vs 16K, 2.0× 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. DBRX ships open weights (Databricks Open Model License); Yi-Lightning is API-only.

Yi-Lightning is the newer of the two, released 7 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 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

SpecDBRXYi-Lightning
ProviderOtherOther
ReleasedMar 2024Oct 2024
Modalitiestexttext
Context window32K tokens16K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not published$0.14 / 1M tokens
Output · 1MPricing not published$0.14 / 1M tokens
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 $0.630
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs $6.30
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, vs $21.84

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
  • 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.

DBRXYi-Lightning
  • MMLU73.7
Pick DBRX if

DBRX fits when…

  • Databricks-native
  • Tuned for enterprise SQL/code
  • Long-context tasks, handles 32K tokens vs 16K for Yi-Lightning.
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Databricks Open Model License).
Pick Yi-Lightning if

Yi-Lightning fits when…

  • Cheap
  • Strong Chinese
  • Fast
Don't want either?

Consider GLM-4.5

Zhipu AI's flagship, strong open-weight Chinese model with broad commercial deployment.

See GLM-4.5 specsDBRX vs GLM-4.5Yi-Lightning vs GLM-4.5

Frequently asked

  • Is DBRX or Yi-Lightning 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?
    DBRX accepts 32K tokens vs 16K for Yi-Lightning.
  • Is DBRX or Yi-Lightning better for coding?
    Both DBRX 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?
    DBRX ships open weights (Databricks Open Model License). Yi-Lightning is API-only.
  • When were DBRX and Yi-Lightning released?
    DBRX was released by Other on 2024-03-27. Yi-Lightning was released by Other on 2024-10-16.
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