North Mini Code vs Reflection Beam 1.0
Cohere · Canada | Reflection AI · US · Updated June 2026
Quick verdict
Pick North Mini Code for agentic software engineering, code generation, and terminal tasks or efficient sparse moe — 3b active of 30b, runs on a single h100. Pick Reflection Beam 1.0 for 501b-parameter sparse moe (about 23b active per token) with weights on hugging face under apache 2.0 or reflection claims 3-4x less inference compute than rival models (vendor claim).
North Mini Code (Cohere, Canada) and Reflection Beam 1.0 (Reflection AI, US) line up two different AI ecosystems against each other — a comparison that is as much about cost philosophy and openness as raw capability. North Mini Code is cohere's first agentic coding model: an open-weight 30B/3B-active MoE built for real software-engineering and terminal tasks that runs on a single H100. Reflection Beam 1.0 is reflection AI's first open-weight model - a 501B Apache 2.0 MoE announced October 5 with weights published October 16, 2026, pitched as a US alternative to Chinese open models. Their biggest split is context window, and the breakdown below shows exactly how that plays out for your workload.
Key differences at a glance
- ▸Context window: Reflection Beam 1.0 holds 3.9× more — 1M tokens (~1,500 pages) vs 256K (~384 pages). But effective recall usually fades long before the advertised ceiling, so the bigger number only helps if the model reasons over it.
- ▸Recency: Reflection Beam 1.0 is the newer model by about 4 months (released October 16, 2026), usually meaning fresher training data and capabilities.
- ▸Ecosystem: this is a Canada-vs-US matchup — they differ in pricing philosophy, data-residency options, and tooling ecosystems, not only benchmarks.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | North Mini Code | Reflection Beam 1.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Cohere (Canada) | Reflection AI (US) |
| Released | June 9, 2026 | October 16, 2026 |
| Context window | 256K (~384 pages) | 1M tokens (~1,500 pages) |
| Price (in/out) | Open weight (self-host / free) | Open weight (self-host / free) |
| Open weight? | Yes — self-hostable | Yes — self-hostable |
| Modalities | text, code | text, code |
| SWE-Bench Verified | 67.6% | Not published |
| MRCR v2 @ 1M | Not published | Not published |
Who wins what
Agentic software engineering, code generation, and terminal tasks
North Mini Code
North Mini Code lists agentic software engineering, code generation, and terminal tasks among its strengths; Reflection Beam 1.0 does not.
Efficient sparse MoE — 3B active of 30B, runs on a single H100
North Mini Code
North Mini Code lists efficient sparse MoE — 3B active of 30B, runs on a single H100 among its strengths; Reflection Beam 1.0 does not.
High throughput (up to 2.8x Devstral Small 2) at low latency
North Mini Code
North Mini Code lists high throughput (up to 2.8x Devstral Small 2) at low latency among its strengths; Reflection Beam 1.0 does not.
501B-parameter sparse MoE (about 23B active per token) with weights on Hugging Face under Apache 2.0
Reflection Beam 1.0
Its 1M tokens window holds about 3.9× more than North Mini Code's 256K in a single prompt.
Reflection claims 3-4x less inference compute than rival models (vendor claim)
Reflection Beam 1.0
North Mini Code is comparatively weak here — 256K context and modest general-intelligence index trail frontier models
Fast and cheap to run: Artificial Analysis measured about 385 output tokens/sec and $0.12 per index task
Reflection Beam 1.0
Reflection AI's first open-weight model - a 501B Apache 2.0 MoE announced October 5 with weights published October 16, 2026, pitched as a US alternative to Chinese open models — and it carries the larger 1M tokens context.
Largest single-prompt input
Reflection Beam 1.0
Its 1M tokens window is about 3.9× larger than North Mini Code's 256K, fitting roughly 1,500 pages in one prompt.
Which should you pick?
Someone analysing very long documents or codebases
→ Reflection Beam 1.0
Larger 1M tokens window fits more in one prompt.
Anyone whose priority is agentic software engineering, code generation, and terminal tasks
→ North Mini Code
It is specifically built for that.
Anyone whose priority is 501b-parameter sparse moe (about 23b active per token) with weights on hugging face under apache 2.0
→ Reflection Beam 1.0
That is its strongest area.
An enterprise with regional data-residency rules
→ Reflection Beam 1.0 or North Mini Code
Origin (Canada vs US) affects where data is processed and which compliance regime applies — check the provider's terms for your region.
North Mini Code: where it fits
Cohere's first agentic coding model: an open-weight 30B/3B-active MoE built for real software-engineering and terminal tasks that runs on a single H100. Released June 9, 2026 by Cohere, it is built for agentic software engineering, code generation, and terminal tasks, efficient sparse MoE — 3B active of 30B, runs on a single H100, high throughput (up to 2.8x Devstral Small 2) at low latency, and fully open weights under Apache 2.0 with fp8 and 4-bit builds.
Its trade-offs are real: text-only and coding-specialized — not multimodal or general-purpose, and 256K context and modest general-intelligence index trail frontier models. As an open-weight model, its running cost is your own hardware rather than a per-token fee.
Reflection Beam 1.0: where it fits
Reflection AI's first open-weight model - a 501B Apache 2.0 MoE announced October 5 with weights published October 16, 2026, pitched as a US alternative to Chinese open models. Released October 16, 2026 by Reflection AI, it is built for 501B-parameter sparse MoE (about 23B active per token) with weights on Hugging Face under Apache 2.0, reflection claims 3-4x less inference compute than rival models (vendor claim), fast and cheap to run: Artificial Analysis measured about 385 output tokens/sec and $0.12 per index task, and third-party hosts list it from $0.25/$1.00 per million tokens (Nebius, as of Oct 27); Reflection's own API is in free beta.
Its trade-offs: artificial Analysis Intelligence Index of 30, well below DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and GLM-5.3 (45), text-only input; some users report reasoning loops on long agent runs, self-hosting needs about 353 GB of GPU memory even at NVFP4, and kernels are CUDA-only for now, and headline benchmarks come from Reflection's own model card; independent evaluation was limited at launch. As an open-weight model, its running cost is your own hardware rather than a per-token fee.
The bottom line for this matchup
This is less "which is smarter" and more "which ecosystem fits." North Mini Code (Canada) and Reflection Beam 1.0 (US) differ on pricing philosophy, data-residency, and tooling as much as on raw scores. The pragmatic move is to run one real task through both and judge the outputs against your own constraints — including where your data is allowed to be processed.
Want both North Mini Code and Reflection Beam 1.0 without two subscriptions? LumiChats gives you these plus 40+ models under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day) — draft with one, cross-check with the other.
See pricingFrequently asked questions
Is North Mini Code or Reflection Beam 1.0 better for coding?
Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for Reflection Beam 1.0, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, North Mini Code leans toward agentic software engineering, code generation, and terminal tasks while Reflection Beam 1.0 leans toward 501b-parameter sparse moe (about 23b active per token) with weights on hugging face under apache 2.0, and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.
Which is cheaper, North Mini Code or Reflection Beam 1.0?
They are priced almost identically, so cost will not decide between them.
Which has the bigger context window?
Reflection Beam 1.0 — 1M tokens vs 256K, about 3.9× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.
Can I use both North Mini Code and Reflection Beam 1.0 together?
Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you North Mini Code, Reflection Beam 1.0 and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.
Which is newer, North Mini Code or Reflection Beam 1.0?
Reflection Beam 1.0 — released October 16, 2026, about 4 months after North Mini Code.
Related comparisons
Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.