Aquila 2 7B vs ShieldGemma 9B
Aquila 2 7B (2023) and ShieldGemma 9B (2024) are compact production models from Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI) and Google DeepMind. Aquila 2 7B ships a 2k-token context window, while ShieldGemma 9B ships a 8k-token context window. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.
ShieldGemma 9B fits 4x more tokens; pick it for long-context work and Aquila 2 7B for tighter calls.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Aquila 2 7B | ShieldGemma 9B |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | general production evaluation | general production evaluation |
| Decision fit | General | Classification |
| Context window | 2k | 8k |
| Cheapest output | - | - |
| Provider routes | 0 tracked | 1 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Use Aquila 2 7B when your own prompt tests beat the comparison signals; the local data does not show a decisive standalone advantage yet.
- ShieldGemma 9B has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- ShieldGemma 9B has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Local decision data tags ShieldGemma 9B for Classification.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.
Aquila 2 7B
Unavailable
No complete token price in local provider data
ShieldGemma 9B
Unavailable
No complete token price in local provider data
Cost delta unavailable until both models have sourced input and output token prices.
Switch friction
- No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Aquila 2 7B and ShieldGemma 9B; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
- No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for ShieldGemma 9B and Aquila 2 7B; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2023-11-02 | 2024-07-01 |
| Context window | 2k | 8k |
| Parameters | 7B | 9B |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Decoder Only |
| License | Proprietary | Gemma |
| Openness | Proprietary | Open weights |
| Weights | Not released | Unknown |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: conditional | Commercial use: conditional |
| Knowledge cutoff | - | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Aquila 2 7B | ShieldGemma 9B |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | - | - |
| Output price | - | - |
| Providers | - |
Pricing not yet sourced for either model.
Capabilities
| Capability | Aquila 2 7B | ShieldGemma 9B |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | No |
| Multimodal | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| JSON / Tool use | No | No |
| Structured outputs | No | No |
| Code execution | No | No |
| IDE integration | No | No |
| Computer use | No | No |
| Parallel agents | No | No |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark scores are currently available for this pair.
Continue comparing
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Last reviewed: 2026-05-19. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.