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OLMo 2 13B 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

OLMo 2 13B specs · Yi-Lightning specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceYi-Lightning

    Yi-Lightning publishes pricing ($0.14 / 1M output tokens) while OLMo 2 13B does not.

  • Context windowYi-Lightning

    Yi-Lightning accepts 16K tokens vs 4.1K, 3.9× 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.

  • OpennessOLMo 2 13B

    OLMo 2 13B ships open weights (Apache-2.0); Yi-Lightning is API-only.

On balance Yi-Lightning edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against OLMo 2 13B's 1. Yi-Lightning publishes pricing ($0.14 / 1M output tokens) while OLMo 2 13B does not. Yi-Lightning accepts 16K tokens vs 4.1K, 3.9× 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. OLMo 2 13B ships open weights (Apache-2.0); Yi-Lightning is API-only.

OLMo 2 13B is the newer of the two, released 1 months after Yi-Lightning, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. OLMo 2 13B is usually picked for open source llm and fine tuning 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

SpecOLMo 2 13BYi-Lightning
ProviderOtherOther
ReleasedNov 2024Oct 2024
Modalitiestexttext
Context window4.1K tokens16K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not published$0.14 / 1M tokens
Output · 1MPricing not published$0.14 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsYes (Apache-2.0)No
API availableNoYes

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, vs $0.630
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs $6.30
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, vs $21.84

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.

  • OLMo 2 13BPricing unavailable
  • 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.

Benchmark scores not yet available. We only publish numbers we can source from official model cards or independent leaderboards, see methodology.
Pick OLMo 2 13B if

OLMo 2 13B fits when…

  • Fully reproducible
  • Apache-2.0
  • Research-friendly
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Apache-2.0).
Pick Yi-Lightning if

Yi-Lightning fits when…

  • Cheap
  • Strong Chinese
  • Fast
  • Long-context tasks, handles 16K tokens vs 4.1K for OLMo 2 13B.
Don't want either?

Consider DBRX

Databricks' 132B MoE, a notable 2024 open-weight release tuned for enterprise.

See DBRX specsOLMo 2 13B vs DBRXYi-Lightning vs DBRX

Frequently asked

  • Is OLMo 2 13B or Yi-Lightning 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?
    Yi-Lightning accepts 16K tokens vs 4.1K for OLMo 2 13B.
  • Is OLMo 2 13B or Yi-Lightning better for coding?
    Both OLMo 2 13B 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?
    OLMo 2 13B ships open weights (Apache-2.0). Yi-Lightning is API-only.
  • When were OLMo 2 13B and Yi-Lightning released?
    OLMo 2 13B was released by Other on 2024-11-26. Yi-Lightning was released by Other on 2024-10-16.
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