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Jamba 1.5 Large vs Amazon Nova Lite

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 · Amazon Nova Lite specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceAmazon Nova Lite

    Amazon Nova Lite is roughly 33.3× cheaper on output tokens ($0.24 vs $8.00 per 1M).

  • Context windowAmazon Nova Lite

    Amazon Nova Lite accepts 300K tokens vs 256K, 1.2× 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.

  • ModalitiesAmazon Nova Lite

    Amazon Nova Lite supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Jamba 1.5 Large.

  • OpennessJamba 1.5 Large

    Jamba 1.5 Large ships open weights (Jamba Open Model License); Amazon Nova Lite is API-only.

On balance Amazon Nova Lite edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Jamba 1.5 Large's 1. Amazon Nova Lite is roughly 33.3× cheaper on output tokens ($0.24 vs $8.00 per 1M). Amazon Nova Lite accepts 300K tokens vs 256K, 1.2× 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, Jamba 1.5 Large handles text while Amazon Nova Lite handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Jamba 1.5 Large ships open weights (Jamba Open Model License); Amazon Nova Lite is API-only.

Amazon Nova Lite is the newer of the two, released 3 months after Jamba 1.5 Large, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Jamba 1.5 Large is usually picked for long context and rag workloads, while Amazon Nova Lite sees more deployments in customer support 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

SpecJamba 1.5 LargeAmazon Nova Lite
ProviderAI21Other
ReleasedAug 2024Dec 2024
Modalitiestexttext, vision
Context window256K tokens300K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$2.00 / 1M tokens$0.060 / 1M tokens
Output · 1M$8.00 / 1M tokens$0.24 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsYes (Jamba 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$18.00 vs $0.540
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$180 vs $5.40
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$348 vs $10.44

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $18.00 vs $0.540 per month, model B comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $180 vs $5.40 per month, model B comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $348 vs $10.44 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
  • Amazon Nova Lite$0.018

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
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Jamba Open Model License).
Pick Amazon Nova Lite if

Amazon Nova Lite fits when…

  • Very cheap
  • AWS-native
  • Multimodal
  • Cost-sensitive workloads, 33.3× cheaper than Jamba 1.5 Large on output tokens.
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
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 MiniAmazon Nova Lite vs Jamba 1.5 Mini

Frequently asked

  • Is Jamba 1.5 Large or Amazon Nova Lite cheaper?
    Amazon Nova Lite is cheaper at $0.24 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $8.00 / 1M tokens for Jamba 1.5 Large.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Amazon Nova Lite accepts 300K tokens vs 256K for Jamba 1.5 Large.
  • Is Jamba 1.5 Large or Amazon Nova Lite better for coding?
    Both Jamba 1.5 Large and Amazon Nova Lite 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?
    Jamba 1.5 Large ships open weights (Jamba Open Model License). Amazon Nova Lite is API-only.
  • When were Jamba 1.5 Large and Amazon Nova Lite released?
    Jamba 1.5 Large was released by AI21 on 2024-08-22. Amazon Nova Lite was released by Other on 2024-12-03.
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