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Jamba 1.5 Large vs Sonar Large

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 · Sonar Large specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceSonar Large

    Sonar Large is roughly 8.0× cheaper on output tokens ($1.00 vs $8.00 per 1M).

  • Context windowJamba 1.5 Large

    Jamba 1.5 Large accepts 256K tokens vs 127K, 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.

  • OpennessJamba 1.5 Large

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

On balance Jamba 1.5 Large edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Sonar Large's 1. Sonar Large is roughly 8.0× cheaper on output tokens ($1.00 vs $8.00 per 1M). Jamba 1.5 Large accepts 256K tokens vs 127K, 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. Jamba 1.5 Large ships open weights (Jamba Open Model License); Sonar Large is API-only.

Sonar Large 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 Sonar Large sees more deployments in research agent and rag. 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 LargeSonar Large
ProviderAI21Perplexity
ReleasedAug 2024Nov 2024
Modalitiestexttext
Context window256K tokens127K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$2.00 / 1M tokens$1.00 / 1M tokens
Output · 1M$8.00 / 1M tokens$1.00 / 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 $4.50
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$180 vs $45.00
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$348 vs $156

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $18.00 vs $4.50 per month, model B comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $180 vs $45.00 per month, model B comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $348 vs $156 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
  • Sonar Large$0.150

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 127K for Sonar Large.
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Jamba Open Model License).
Pick Sonar Large if

Sonar Large fits when…

  • Web-search grounded
  • Citation-first output
  • Cheap
  • Cost-sensitive workloads, 8.0× 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 MiniSonar Large vs Jamba 1.5 Mini

Frequently asked

  • Is Jamba 1.5 Large or Sonar Large cheaper?
    Sonar Large is cheaper at $1.00 / 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 127K for Sonar Large.
  • Is Jamba 1.5 Large or Sonar Large better for coding?
    Both Jamba 1.5 Large and Sonar Large 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). Sonar Large is API-only.
  • When were Jamba 1.5 Large and Sonar Large released?
    Jamba 1.5 Large was released by AI21 on 2024-08-22. Sonar Large was released by Perplexity on 2024-11-19.
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