Model Comparison
Jamba 1.5 Mini vs Llama 3.1 405B InstructWhich is better in 2026?
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Jamba 1.5 Mini is 3.6x cheaper per token.
Verdict: Jamba 1.5 Mini vs Llama 3.1 405B Instruct — which is better?
Jamba 1.5 Mini (by AI21 Labs) and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct (by Meta) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.
Jamba 1.5 Mini outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is better at 5 benchmarks (ARC-C, GPQA, GSM8k, MMLU, MMLU-Pro). Llama 3.1 405B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
On price, Jamba 1.5 Mini is roughly 3.6x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Jamba 1.5 Mini also accepts a larger context window (256,144 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Choose Jamba 1.5 Mini if…
- cost matters — it's about 3.6x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 256,144 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2024
Choose Llama 3.1 405B Instruct if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 5 of 5 shared benchmarks
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Jamba 1.5 Mini outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is better at 5 benchmarks (ARC-C, GPQA, GSM8k, MMLU, MMLU-Pro).
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Jamba 1.5 Mini ($0.20/1M tokens) is 4.5x cheaper than Llama 3.1 405B Instruct ($0.89/1M tokens).
For output processing, Jamba 1.5 Mini ($0.40/1M tokens) is 2.2x cheaper than Llama 3.1 405B Instruct ($0.89/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is more expensive than Jamba 1.5 Mini.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct has 353.0B more parameters than Jamba 1.5 Mini, making it 678.8% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Jamba 1.5 Mini accepts 256,144 input tokens compared to Llama 3.1 405B Instruct's 128,000 tokens. Jamba 1.5 Mini can generate longer responses up to 256,144 tokens, while Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is limited to 128,000 tokens.
License
Usage and distribution terms
Jamba 1.5 Mini is licensed under Jamba Open Model License, while Llama 3.1 405B Instruct uses Llama 3.1 Community License.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Jamba Open Model License
Open weights
Llama 3.1 Community License
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Jamba 1.5 Mini was released on 2024-08-22, while Llama 3.1 405B Instruct was released on 2024-07-23.
Jamba 1.5 Mini is 1 month newer than Llama 3.1 405B Instruct.
Aug 22, 2024
1.9 years ago
1mo newerJul 23, 2024
2.0 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Jamba 1.5 Mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-03-05, while Llama 3.1 405B Instruct's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Jamba 1.5 Mini's training data extends to 2024-03-05, but cannot make a direct comparison without Llama 3.1 405B Instruct's cutoff date.
Mar 2024
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Provider Availability
Jamba 1.5 Mini is available from Bedrock, Google. Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is available from Lambda, DeepInfra, Fireworks, Bedrock, Together, Hyperbolic, Google, Replicate.
Jamba 1.5 Mini
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Jamba 1.5 Mini
View detailsAI21 Labs
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Jamba 1.5 Mini and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about Jamba 1.5 Mini vs Llama 3.1 405B Instruct.