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Jamba 1.5 Large vs Mistral Small

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

Jamba 1.5 Large specs · Mistral Small specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceMistral Small

    Mistral Small is roughly 13.3× cheaper on output tokens ($0.60 vs $8.00 per 1M).

  • Context windowJamba 1.5 Large

    Jamba 1.5 Large accepts 256K tokens vs 128K, 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.

  • OpennessTie

    Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

It's a genuine coin-flip between Jamba 1.5 Large and Mistral Small: 1 category wins each, with the rest tied. Mistral Small is roughly 13.3× cheaper on output tokens ($0.60 vs $8.00 per 1M). Jamba 1.5 Large accepts 256K tokens vs 128K, 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. Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

Both shipped within roughly a month of each other in 2024, so they share the same generation of training data and tooling. Jamba 1.5 Large is usually picked for long context and rag workloads, while Mistral Small sees more deployments in cheapest llm and fastest llm. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecJamba 1.5 LargeMistral Small
ProviderAI21Mistral
ReleasedAug 2024Sep 2024
Modalitiestexttext
Context window256K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$2.00 / 1M tokens$0.20 / 1M tokens
Output · 1M$8.00 / 1M tokens$0.60 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsYes (Jamba Open Model License)Yes (Apache-2.0)
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$18.00 vs $1.50
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$180 vs $15.00
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$348 vs $33.60

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $18.00 vs $1.50 per month, model B comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $180 vs $15.00 per month, model B comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $348 vs $33.60 per month, model B comes out ahead.

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Jamba 1.5 Large$0.600
  • Mistral Small$0.050

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

Benchmark scores not yet available. We only publish numbers we can source from official model cards or independent leaderboards, see methodology.
Pick Jamba 1.5 Large if

Jamba 1.5 Large fits when…

  • 256k context
  • Efficient long-context inference
  • Open weights
  • Long-context tasks, handles 256K tokens vs 128K for Mistral Small.
Pick Mistral Small if

Mistral Small fits when…

  • Apache-2.0 open-weight
  • Fast and cheap
  • Cost-sensitive workloads, 13.3× cheaper than Jamba 1.5 Large on output tokens.
Don't want either?

Consider Jamba 1.5 Mini

Smaller hybrid SSM-Transformer model, fast and efficient at long contexts.

See Jamba 1.5 Mini specsJamba 1.5 Large vs Jamba 1.5 MiniMistral Small vs Jamba 1.5 Mini

Frequently asked

  • Is Jamba 1.5 Large or Mistral Small cheaper?
    Mistral Small is cheaper at $0.60 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $8.00 / 1M tokens for Jamba 1.5 Large.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Jamba 1.5 Large accepts 256K tokens vs 128K for Mistral Small.
  • Is Jamba 1.5 Large or Mistral Small better for coding?
    Both Jamba 1.5 Large and Mistral Small 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. Jamba 1.5 Large is licensed under Jamba Open Model License; Mistral Small under Apache-2.0.
  • When were Jamba 1.5 Large and Mistral Small released?
    Jamba 1.5 Large was released by AI21 on 2024-08-22. Mistral Small was released by Mistral on 2024-09-18.
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