Yi Lightning vs SD 3.5 Medium

Compare Yi Lightning and SD 3.5 Medium: pricing, performance, context window, latency, and best use cases. Side-by-side comparison on XALEN.

Updated 2026-05-21 · By Abhishek Raj · Our methodology

All 01.AI models All Stability AI models What is an LLM API? Python Quickstart What is inference?
Feature Yi Lightning SD 3.5 Medium
CategoryOpen SourceImage
Parameters200B MoE2.5B
Context Window128KN/A
Input Price$0.04/1M tokens$0.003/image/1M tokens
Output Price$0.08/1M tokensN/A/1M tokens
Latency~300ms~2s

Choose Yi Lightning when:

  • ✓ High-volume APIs
  • ✓ Fast Q&A
  • ✓ Real-time chatbots
Key Strengths:

Fast inference, Good multilingual, Strong reasoning

Choose SD 3.5 Medium when:

  • ✓ General imagery
  • ✓ Batch generation
  • ✓ Prototyping
Key Strengths:

Good quality, Fast, Open weights

Verdict: Yi Lightning vs SD 3.5 Medium

For cost efficiency, SD 3.5 Medium wins at $0.003/image/1M input tokens. For speed, SD 3.5 Medium is faster at ~2s. Yi Lightning excels at High-volume APIs while SD 3.5 Medium is better for General imagery. Both are available on XALEN through a single API — try them in the Playground to see which fits your workload.

Detailed Analysis

Pricing Comparison

Yi Lightning costs $0.04/1M input tokens and $0.08/1M output tokens. SD 3.5 Medium costs $0.003/image input and N/A output. SD 3.5 Medium is 13.3x cheaper on input tokens. XALEN offers batch processing at 50% discount on both models.

Performance & Context

Yi Lightning has a 128K context window with ~300ms latency. SD 3.5 Medium offers N/A context at ~2s. Yi Lightning has the larger context window.

Best For

Yi Lightning (Open Source) is optimized for: High-volume APIs, Fast Q&A, Real-time chatbots. SD 3.5 Medium (Image) works best for: General imagery, Batch generation, Prototyping.

Try Both on XALEN

Both models are available through XALEN's OpenAI-compatible API. Switch between them by changing the model parameter:

from xalen import XALEN

client = XALEN(api_key="xln_test_YOUR_KEY")

# Use Yi Lightning
response_a = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="yi-lightning",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Your question here"}]
)

# Use SD 3.5 Medium
response_b = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="stable-diffusion-3-5-medium",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Your question here"}]
)

Start Building with XALEN

200+ AI models. One API. Pay-as-you-go.

Get API Key Try in Playground

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Yi Lightning or SD 3.5 Medium?

Yi Lightning (Open Source, 200B MoE) offers Fast inference. SD 3.5 Medium (Image, 2.5B) offers Good quality. Choose Yi Lightning for High-volume APIs or SD 3.5 Medium for General imagery.

How much does Yi Lightning cost vs SD 3.5 Medium?

Yi Lightning: $0.04/1M input, $0.08/1M output. SD 3.5 Medium: $0.003/image/1M input, N/A/1M output. Both available on XALEN with batch processing at 50% discount.

Can I use both models on XALEN?

Yes. XALEN provides 200+ models through a single OpenAI-compatible API. Switch between Yi Lightning and SD 3.5 Medium by changing the model parameter. No code changes needed.

Related Comparisons

Yi Lightning vs DALL-E 3 Yi Lightning vs Gemma 3 27B Yi Lightning vs Imagen 3 Yi Lightning vs Llama 4 Scout Yi Lightning vs Llama 4 Maverick Yi Lightning vs Llama 3.3 70B

Last updated: 2026-05-21. Pricing and specifications may change. Check pricing page for latest rates.