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Jamba 1.5 Mini vs Llama 4 405B

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 Mini specs · Llama 4 405B specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceJamba 1.5 Mini

    Jamba 1.5 Mini publishes pricing ($0.40 / 1M output tokens) while Llama 4 405B does not.

  • Context windowTie

    Both ship a 256K-token context window.

  • BenchmarksTie

    No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.

  • ModalitiesLlama 4 405B

    Llama 4 405B supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Jamba 1.5 Mini.

  • OpennessTie

    Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

It's a genuine coin-flip between Jamba 1.5 Mini and Llama 4 405B: 1 category wins each, with the rest tied. Jamba 1.5 Mini publishes pricing ($0.40 / 1M output tokens) while Llama 4 405B does not. Both ship a 256K-token context window.

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 Mini handles text while Llama 4 405B handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

Llama 4 405B is the newer of the two, released 8 months after Jamba 1.5 Mini, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Jamba 1.5 Mini is usually picked for long context and summarization workloads, while Llama 4 405B sees more deployments in open source llm and fine tuning. 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 MiniLlama 4 405B
ProviderAI21Meta
ReleasedAug 2024Apr 2025
Modalitiestexttext, vision
Context window256K tokens256K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$0.20 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Output · 1M$0.40 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff,2024-12
Open weightsYes (Jamba Open Model License)Yes (Llama 4 Community License)
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$1.20 vs ,
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$12.00 vs ,
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$32.40 vs ,

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).

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 Mini$0.040
  • Llama 4 405BPricing unavailable

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 Mini if

Jamba 1.5 Mini fits when…

  • 256k context at small-model price
  • Hybrid SSM-Transformer is efficient on long inputs
  • Open weights for self-hosting
Pick Llama 4 405B if

Llama 4 405B fits when…

  • Strongest open-weight model at launch
  • Multimodal (text + vision)
  • Wide hosting availability
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Don't want either?

Consider Jamba 1.5 Large

AI21's hybrid SSM-Transformer with a 256k context window, strong on long-doc tasks.

See Jamba 1.5 Large specsJamba 1.5 Mini vs Jamba 1.5 LargeLlama 4 405B vs Jamba 1.5 Large

Frequently asked

  • Is Jamba 1.5 Mini or Llama 4 405B 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?
    Both Jamba 1.5 Mini and Llama 4 405B ship a 256K-token context window.
  • Is Jamba 1.5 Mini or Llama 4 405B better for coding?
    Both Jamba 1.5 Mini and Llama 4 405B 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 Mini is licensed under Jamba Open Model License; Llama 4 405B under Llama 4 Community License.
  • When were Jamba 1.5 Mini and Llama 4 405B released?
    Jamba 1.5 Mini was released by AI21 on 2024-08-22. Llama 4 405B was released by Meta on 2025-04-05.
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