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o4-mini vs Yi-Lightning

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

o4-mini specs · Yi-Lightning specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceYi-Lightning

    Yi-Lightning is roughly 31.4× cheaper on output tokens ($0.14 vs $4.40 per 1M).

  • Context windowo4-mini

    o4-mini accepts 200K tokens vs 16K, 12.5× 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-mini

    o4-mini supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Yi-Lightning.

  • OpennessTie

    Both are closed-weight, API-only.

On balance o4-mini edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Yi-Lightning's 1. Yi-Lightning is roughly 31.4× cheaper on output tokens ($0.14 vs $4.40 per 1M). o4-mini accepts 200K tokens vs 16K, 12.5× 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, o4-mini handles text, vision while Yi-Lightning handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Both are closed-weight, API-only.

o4-mini is the newer of the two, released 6 months after Yi-Lightning, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. o4-mini is usually picked for reasoning and math workloads, while Yi-Lightning sees more deployments in chinese llm and cheapest llm. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

Speco4-miniYi-Lightning
ProviderOpenAIOther
ReleasedApr 2025Oct 2024
Modalitiestext, visiontext
Context window200K tokens16K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$1.10 / 1M tokens$0.14 / 1M tokens
Output · 1M$4.40 / 1M tokens$0.14 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff2024-06,
Open weightsNoNo
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$9.90 vs $0.630
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$99.00 vs $6.30
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$191 vs $21.84

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $9.90 vs $0.630 per month, model B comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $99.00 vs $6.30 per month, model B comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $191 vs $21.84 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.

  • o4-mini$0.330
  • Yi-Lightning$0.021

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

o4-miniYi-Lightning
  • GPQA81.4
Pick o4-mini if

o4-mini fits when…

  • Strong reasoning at mid-tier price
  • Fast for a thinking model
  • Solid tool-use
  • Long-context tasks, handles 200K tokens vs 16K for Yi-Lightning.
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Pick Yi-Lightning if

Yi-Lightning fits when…

  • Cheap
  • Strong Chinese
  • Fast
  • Cost-sensitive workloads, 31.4× cheaper than o4-mini on output tokens.
Don't want either?

Consider GPT-5.5

OpenAI's mid-cycle GPT-5 refresh, improved reasoning, tool use, and multimodal grounding over the 2025 launch.

See GPT-5.5 specso4-mini vs GPT-5.5Yi-Lightning vs GPT-5.5

Frequently asked

  • Is o4-mini or Yi-Lightning cheaper?
    Yi-Lightning is cheaper at $0.14 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $4.40 / 1M tokens for o4-mini.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    o4-mini accepts 200K tokens vs 16K for Yi-Lightning.
  • Is o4-mini or Yi-Lightning better for coding?
    Both o4-mini and Yi-Lightning 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?
    Neither model ships open weights, both are accessible only via their respective providers' APIs.
  • When were o4-mini and Yi-Lightning released?
    o4-mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-04-16. Yi-Lightning was released by Other on 2024-10-16.
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