Grok 2 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
Grok 2 specs · Yi-Lightning specs- PriceYi-Lightning
Yi-Lightning publishes pricing ($0.14 / 1M output tokens) while Grok 2 does not.
- Context windowGrok 2
Grok 2 accepts 128K tokens vs 16K, 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.
- ModalitiesGrok 2
Grok 2 supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Yi-Lightning.
- OpennessTie
Both are closed-weight, API-only.
On balance Grok 2 edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Yi-Lightning's 1. Yi-Lightning publishes pricing ($0.14 / 1M output tokens) while Grok 2 does not. Grok 2 accepts 128K tokens vs 16K, 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, Grok 2 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.
Yi-Lightning is the newer of the two, released 2 months after Grok 2, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Grok 2 is usually picked for chatbots 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
| Spec | Grok 2 | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | xAI | Other |
| Released | Aug 2024 | Oct 2024 |
| Modalities | text, vision | text |
| Context window | 128K tokens | 16K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | Pricing not published | $0.14 / 1M tokens |
| Output · 1M | Pricing not published | $0.14 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | , | , |
| Open weights | No | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
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).
Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Grok 2Pricing 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.
Grok 2 fits when…
- Free on X Premium
- Real-time data
- Long-context tasks, handles 128K tokens vs 16K for Yi-Lightning.
- Multimodal needs covering vision.
Yi-Lightning fits when…
- Cheap
- Strong Chinese
- Fast
Consider Grok 4
xAI's mid-2025 flagship, top scores on Humanity's Last Exam at launch, with native real-time X integration.
Frequently asked
Is Grok 2 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?
Grok 2 accepts 128K tokens vs 16K for Yi-Lightning.Is Grok 2 or Yi-Lightning better for coding?
Both Grok 2 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 Grok 2 and Yi-Lightning released?
Grok 2 was released by xAI on 2024-08-13. Yi-Lightning was released by Other on 2024-10-16.
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