Jamba 1.5 Mini vs o4
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 · o4 specs- PriceJamba 1.5 Mini
Jamba 1.5 Mini publishes pricing ($0.40 / 1M output tokens) while o4 does not.
- Context windowJamba 1.5 Mini
Jamba 1.5 Mini 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
o4 supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Jamba 1.5 Mini.
- OpennessJamba 1.5 Mini
Jamba 1.5 Mini ships open weights (Jamba Open Model License); o4 is API-only.
On balance Jamba 1.5 Mini edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against o4's 1. Jamba 1.5 Mini publishes pricing ($0.40 / 1M output tokens) while o4 does not. Jamba 1.5 Mini 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 Mini handles text while o4 handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Jamba 1.5 Mini ships open weights (Jamba Open Model License); o4 is API-only.
o4 is the newer of the two, released 16 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 o4 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 Mini | o4 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | AI21 | OpenAI |
| Released | Aug 2024 | Dec 2025 |
| Modalities | text | text, vision |
| Context window | 256K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $0.20 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Output · 1M | $0.40 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Knowledge cutoff | , | , |
| 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$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).
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
- o4Pricing unavailable
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
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
- Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Jamba Open Model License).
o4 fits when…
- Exceptional performance on hard math and reasoning benchmarks
- Good at multi-step planning and verification
- Strong scientific reasoning
- Multimodal needs covering vision.
Consider Jamba 1.5 Large
AI21's hybrid SSM-Transformer with a 256k context window, strong on long-doc tasks.
Frequently asked
Is Jamba 1.5 Mini or o4 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?
Jamba 1.5 Mini accepts 256K tokens vs 200K for o4.Is Jamba 1.5 Mini or o4 better for coding?
Both Jamba 1.5 Mini and o4 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 Mini ships open weights (Jamba Open Model License). o4 is API-only.When were Jamba 1.5 Mini and o4 released?
Jamba 1.5 Mini was released by AI21 on 2024-08-22. o4 was released by OpenAI on 2025-12-15.
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