Jamba 1.5 Large vs o4-mini
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 · o4-mini specs- Priceo4-mini
o4-mini is roughly 1.8× cheaper on output tokens ($4.40 vs $8.00 per 1M).
- Context windowJamba 1.5 Large
Jamba 1.5 Large accepts 256K tokens vs 200K, 1.3× 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.
- Modalitieso4-mini
o4-mini 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); o4-mini is API-only.
It's a genuine coin-flip between Jamba 1.5 Large and o4-mini: 2 category wins each, with the rest tied. o4-mini is roughly 1.8× cheaper on output tokens ($4.40 vs $8.00 per 1M). Jamba 1.5 Large accepts 256K tokens vs 200K, 1.3× 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 o4-mini 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); o4-mini is API-only.
o4-mini is the newer of the two, released 8 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 o4-mini sees more deployments in reasoning and math. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Jamba 1.5 Large | o4-mini |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | AI21 | OpenAI |
| Released | Aug 2024 | Apr 2025 |
| Modalities | text | text, vision |
| Context window | 256K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $2.00 / 1M tokens | $1.10 / 1M tokens |
| Output · 1M | $8.00 / 1M tokens | $4.40 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | , | 2024-06 |
| Open weights | Yes (Jamba Open Model License) | 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$18.00 vs $9.90
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$180 vs $99.00
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$348 vs $191
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $18.00 vs $9.90 per month, model B comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $180 vs $99.00 per month, model B comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $348 vs $191 per month, model B comes out ahead.
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
- o4-mini$0.330
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- GPQA,81.4
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).
o4-mini fits when…
- Strong reasoning at mid-tier price
- Fast for a thinking model
- Solid tool-use
- Cost-sensitive workloads, 1.8× cheaper than Jamba 1.5 Large on output tokens.
- Multimodal needs covering vision.
Consider Jamba 1.5 Mini
Smaller hybrid SSM-Transformer model, fast and efficient at long contexts.
Frequently asked
Is Jamba 1.5 Large or o4-mini cheaper?
o4-mini is cheaper at $4.40 / 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 200K for o4-mini.Is Jamba 1.5 Large or o4-mini better for coding?
Both Jamba 1.5 Large and o4-mini 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). o4-mini is API-only.When were Jamba 1.5 Large and o4-mini released?
Jamba 1.5 Large was released by AI21 on 2024-08-22. o4-mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-04-16.
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