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Jamba 1.5 Mini 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 Mini specs · Sonar Large specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceJamba 1.5 Mini

    Jamba 1.5 Mini is roughly 2.5× cheaper on output tokens ($0.40 vs $1.00 per 1M).

  • Context windowJamba 1.5 Mini

    Jamba 1.5 Mini 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 Mini

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

On balance Jamba 1.5 Mini edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Sonar Large's 0. Jamba 1.5 Mini is roughly 2.5× cheaper on output tokens ($0.40 vs $1.00 per 1M). Jamba 1.5 Mini 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 Mini 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 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 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 MiniSonar Large
ProviderAI21Perplexity
ReleasedAug 2024Nov 2024
Modalitiestexttext
Context window256K tokens127K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$0.20 / 1M tokens$1.00 / 1M tokens
Output · 1M$0.40 / 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$1.20 vs $4.50
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$12.00 vs $45.00
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$32.40 vs $156

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $1.20 vs $4.50 per month, model A comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $12.00 vs $45.00 per month, model A comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $32.40 vs $156 per month, model A 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 Mini$0.040
  • 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 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
  • Cost-sensitive workloads, 2.5× cheaper than Sonar Large on output tokens.
  • Long-context tasks, handles 256K tokens vs 127K for Sonar Large.
Pick Sonar Large if

Sonar Large fits when…

  • Web-search grounded
  • Citation-first output
  • Cheap
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 LargeSonar Large vs Jamba 1.5 Large

Frequently asked

  • Is Jamba 1.5 Mini or Sonar Large cheaper?
    Jamba 1.5 Mini is cheaper at $0.40 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $1.00 / 1M tokens for Sonar Large.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Jamba 1.5 Mini accepts 256K tokens vs 127K for Sonar Large.
  • Is Jamba 1.5 Mini or Sonar Large better for coding?
    Both Jamba 1.5 Mini 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 Mini ships open weights (Jamba Open Model License). Sonar Large is API-only.
  • When were Jamba 1.5 Mini and Sonar Large released?
    Jamba 1.5 Mini was released by AI21 on 2024-08-22. Sonar Large was released by Perplexity on 2024-11-19.
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