OpenChat 3.5 (1210) offers an exceptionally low-cost solution for basic text generation, excelling in scenarios where intelligence is secondary to affordability and direct control.
OpenChat 3.5 (1210) positions itself as a highly accessible and cost-effective language model, particularly appealing to developers and organizations operating under strict budget constraints. While it ranks at the lower end of the intelligence spectrum, scoring 5 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, its primary value proposition lies in its unparalleled pricing: effectively free for both input and output tokens. This makes it an attractive option for high-volume, low-complexity tasks where the computational overhead of more advanced models would be prohibitive.
This model is an open-weight offering from OpenChat, granting users significant flexibility in deployment and modification under an open license. Its 8k token context window provides sufficient capacity for many common applications, from simple content generation and summarization to basic chatbot interactions, provided the tasks do not demand complex reasoning or deep understanding. The knowledge cutoff of October 2023 ensures it has a reasonably up-to-date understanding of general world knowledge, though it won't be aware of more recent events.
The 'non-reasoning' classification is crucial for setting expectations. OpenChat 3.5 (1210) is not designed for intricate problem-solving, nuanced interpretation, or sophisticated creative writing. Instead, it excels at generating coherent, grammatically correct text based on patterns learned from its training data. Its strength lies in its ability to produce a large volume of text efficiently and without incurring direct API costs, making it a strong contender for internal tools, experimental projects, or applications where a 'good enough' output is acceptable and cost is the paramount concern.
For those considering OpenChat 3.5 (1210), the decision often boils down to a clear trade-off: sacrificing advanced intelligence and reasoning capabilities for extreme cost-efficiency and the benefits of an open-source model. It represents a strategic choice for developers looking to integrate language model functionalities without the financial burden typically associated with state-of-the-art proprietary models, especially when self-hosting or leveraging community-driven deployments.
5 (#51 / 55 / 55)
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| Spec | Details |
|---|---|
| Model Name | OpenChat 3.5 (1210) |
| Owner | OpenChat |
| License | Open |
| Context Window | 8,000 tokens |
| Knowledge Cutoff | October 2023 |
| Intelligence Index | 5 (out of 4 units) |
| Input Price | $0.00 per 1M tokens |
| Output Price | $0.00 per 1M tokens |
| Model Type | Open-weight, Non-reasoning |
| Primary Use Case | Cost-effective text generation, summarization |
| Benchmark Rank (Intelligence) | #51 / 55 |
| Benchmark Rank (Price) | #1 / 55 (Input & Output) |
Given OpenChat 3.5 (1210) is an open-weight model with effectively zero direct API costs, the 'provider' choice primarily revolves around deployment strategy rather than selecting a commercial API vendor. The best approach depends on your technical capabilities, infrastructure, and specific use case requirements.
| Priority | Pick | Why | Tradeoff to accept |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Self-Hosted (On-Premise)** | Direct Deployment | Maximum control over data, security, and customization. No recurring API costs. | High initial setup cost, ongoing maintenance, requires significant technical expertise and hardware. |
| **Cloud-Hosted (Managed VM)** | AWS, GCP, Azure | Leverage cloud scalability and infrastructure without managing physical hardware. Pay-as-you-go compute. | Requires cloud expertise, ongoing compute costs, potential egress fees. Still responsible for model deployment. |
| **Specialized Open-Model Hosting** | Hugging Face Inference Endpoints, Replicate (for open models) | Simplified deployment and scaling for open-weight models, often with competitive pricing for compute. | Less control than self-hosting, still incurs compute costs, may have rate limits or specific usage policies. |
| **Community-Driven Platforms** | Local deployment, specific open-source projects | Ideal for experimentation, learning, and very small-scale personal projects. Often free or very low cost. | Limited scalability, no guarantees on uptime or performance, requires local setup. |
The 'provider' for OpenChat 3.5 (1210) is largely about your chosen deployment environment, as the model itself is open-weight and free to use.
Understanding the real-world cost implications of OpenChat 3.5 (1210) requires shifting focus from direct API fees to the computational resources needed for deployment and operation. The following scenarios illustrate potential costs based on self-hosting or managed cloud infrastructure.
| Scenario | Input | Output | What it represents | Estimated cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| **Basic Content Generation** | 100 words (500 tokens) | 100 words (500 tokens) | Generating short product descriptions, social media posts, or email drafts. | ~$0.00001 - $0.00005 (compute cost per request on a small GPU instance) |
| **Summarization of Articles** | 1,000 words (5,000 tokens) | 200 words (1,000 tokens) | Condensing news articles or reports for quick consumption. | ~$0.00005 - $0.00015 (compute cost per request on a medium GPU instance) |
| **Chatbot for FAQs** | 50 words (250 tokens) | 50 words (250 tokens) | Responding to common customer queries with pre-defined or generated answers. | ~$0.000005 - $0.00002 (compute cost per request on a small CPU/GPU instance) |
| **Data Extraction (Simple)** | 2,000 words (10,000 tokens) | 100 words (500 tokens) | Extracting specific entities (names, dates) from unstructured text. | ~$0.0001 - $0.0003 (compute cost per request on a medium GPU instance) |
| **High-Volume Internal Tool** | 100,000 words (500,000 tokens) | 100,000 words (500,000 tokens) | Automating internal report generation or large-scale document processing. | ~$0.005 - $0.015 (compute cost for a batch job on a powerful GPU instance) |
For OpenChat 3.5 (1210), the 'cost' is almost entirely driven by your infrastructure choices and the scale of your deployment. While direct token costs are zero, the operational expenses for compute, storage, and maintenance can accumulate, especially for high-throughput or complex self-hosted setups. Careful resource planning is essential to realize its cost-saving potential.
Leveraging OpenChat 3.5 (1210) effectively for cost savings requires a strategic approach that focuses on optimizing your deployment and usage patterns, rather than just API costs. Here's a playbook for maximizing its value:
Since OpenChat 3.5 is free to use, your primary cost will be the compute resources. Choose hardware or cloud instances that are appropriately sized for your expected load. Over-provisioning leads to wasted money, while under-provisioning leads to performance bottlenecks.
Due to its lower intelligence, OpenChat 3.5 (1210) benefits immensely from precise and well-crafted prompts. Investing time in prompt engineering can significantly improve output quality and reduce the need for post-processing.
Given the model's non-reasoning nature, outputs may sometimes be irrelevant, repetitive, or factually incorrect. Implementing automated validation steps can save human review time and ensure quality.
Don't use a hammer for every nail. OpenChat 3.5 (1210) is best suited for specific types of tasks. Understand its limitations and allocate tasks accordingly.
OpenChat 3.5 (1210) is best suited for high-volume, low-complexity text generation tasks where cost is the primary concern. This includes basic content creation (e.g., product descriptions, social media posts), simple summarization, rephrasing, and automating repetitive text-based processes. Its open-weight nature also makes it excellent for experimentation and custom deployments.
OpenChat 3.5 (1210) ranks at the lower end of the intelligence spectrum, scoring 5 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index. It is classified as a 'non-reasoning' model, meaning it excels at pattern-matching and generating coherent text but struggles with complex problem-solving, nuanced understanding, or tasks requiring deep logical inference. It's significantly less intelligent than leading proprietary models.
Yes, the model itself is open-weight and licensed in a way that allows free usage, meaning there are no direct per-token API costs. However, 'free' does not mean 'costless.' You will incur costs related to the infrastructure required to run the model (e.g., GPU servers, cloud computing instances, electricity) and the human effort for deployment, maintenance, and quality control of its outputs.
OpenChat 3.5 (1210) features an 8,000-token context window. This allows it to process and generate text based on a reasonably substantial amount of input, making it suitable for tasks that require understanding a moderate-length document or maintaining a short conversation history.
The main benefits include complete control over the model, data privacy (as data doesn't leave your infrastructure), the ability to fine-tune the model on proprietary datasets for specific use cases, and freedom from vendor lock-in. It also fosters innovation within the open-source community and allows for greater transparency into the model's workings.
Challenges include the need for significant technical expertise for deployment and maintenance, the upfront and ongoing costs of hardware or cloud infrastructure, and the responsibility for ensuring the quality and safety of the model's outputs. Unlike managed API services, you are responsible for scaling, security, and updates.
Yes, as an open-weight model, OpenChat 3.5 (1210) can be fine-tuned on custom datasets. Fine-tuning is a powerful way to adapt the model to specific domains, improve its performance on particular tasks, or align its output style with your brand's voice, often leading to better results than prompt engineering alone for specialized applications.