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Jamba 1.5 Mini vs SmolLM2 1.7B

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 · SmolLM2 1.7B specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceJamba 1.5 Mini

    Jamba 1.5 Mini publishes pricing ($0.40 / 1M output tokens) while SmolLM2 1.7B does not.

  • Context windowJamba 1.5 Mini

    Jamba 1.5 Mini accepts 256K tokens vs 8.2K, 31.3× 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.

  • ModalitiesTie

    Both handle text.

  • OpennessTie

    Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

On balance Jamba 1.5 Mini edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against SmolLM2 1.7B's 0. Jamba 1.5 Mini publishes pricing ($0.40 / 1M output tokens) while SmolLM2 1.7B does not. Jamba 1.5 Mini accepts 256K tokens vs 8.2K, 31.3× the room for long documents and codebases.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. Both target the same set of modalities (text), so the deciding factors are price, context, and raw quality. Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

SmolLM2 1.7B is the newer of the two, released 2 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 SmolLM2 1.7B sees more deployments in on device and edge deployment. 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 MiniSmolLM2 1.7B
ProviderAI21Other
ReleasedAug 2024Nov 2024
Modalitiestexttext
Context window256K tokens8.2K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$0.20 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Output · 1M$0.40 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsYes (Jamba Open Model License)Yes (Apache-2.0)
API availableYesNo

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
  • SmolLM2 1.7BPricing 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
  • Long-context tasks, handles 256K tokens vs 8.2K for SmolLM2 1.7B.
Pick SmolLM2 1.7B if

SmolLM2 1.7B fits when…

  • Truly tiny
  • Apache-2.0
  • Runs on phones
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 LargeSmolLM2 1.7B vs Jamba 1.5 Large

Frequently asked

  • Is Jamba 1.5 Mini or SmolLM2 1.7B 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 8.2K for SmolLM2 1.7B.
  • Is Jamba 1.5 Mini or SmolLM2 1.7B better for coding?
    Both Jamba 1.5 Mini and SmolLM2 1.7B 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; SmolLM2 1.7B under Apache-2.0.
  • When were Jamba 1.5 Mini and SmolLM2 1.7B released?
    Jamba 1.5 Mini was released by AI21 on 2024-08-22. SmolLM2 1.7B was released by Other on 2024-11-01.
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