Beam 1.0 Review: Reflection AI's Open-Weight Coding Model With a 1M-Token Window
Pick Beam 1.0 for coding and agent loops where token economy matters; Reflection says Kimi K3 is ahead on raw capability, and we haven't measured Beam.
Freedom Score
Not yet tested
- Price
- $1.50 per 1M mixed tokens (3 input : 1 output)
- Output speed
- 217 tok/s
- Success rate
- Collecting data
Beam 1.0 is Reflection AI's open-weight model for coding, reasoning and long-horizon agent work, released in October 2026. Reflection describes a sparse mixture-of-experts network with about 501 billion parameters, of which roughly 23 billion are active per token. On our API it is a text-only OpenAI-compatible chat endpoint with a 1,048,576-token input budget, replies up to 943,718 tokens, streaming, tool calls and five reasoning levels, at $1 per million input tokens and $3 output.
- SpicyAPI Engineering
- Tested Oct 28, 2026
- Methodology v3.3 →
- We sell these models; scores ignore price →
The verdict
This is a catalogue review: we have not run our own quality or content tests. Reflection reports 81.6% on SWE-Bench Verified and 80.1% on Terminal Bench v2.1; those are published by Reflection, not independent results. Reflection concedes that Kimi K3 is ahead on raw capability, and an independent index scores Beam below the median of similar open-weight models. The pitch is efficiency: Reflection claims about three times fewer reasoning tokens, which matters because reasoning tokens bill as output.
Key facts
- Tested by us: catalogue check and launch smoke run only, no quality or content tests; benchmarks are published by Reflection
- Price: $1 per million input tokens, $0.10 cached and $3 output
- Limits: 1,048,576-token context, replies up to 943,718 tokens (default 4,096), text-only input, up to 128 tools
- Reasoning: low, medium, high, xhigh or max; medium is the default
- Publisher notes: knowledge cutoff 30 June 2026
- Sources: the scoring rules are on our review methodology page, and the full parameter list is on the Beam 1.0 model page.
What we liked and what held it back
What we liked
- Open weights. Inspect, fine-tune or self-host under the publisher's licence terms; read the licence on the model card.
- A million-token window for whole repositories.
- Token economy. Reflection's pitch is fewer reasoning tokens per answer, which lowers output cost.
- Five reasoning levels, low to max.
- Flexible tools.
tool_choicetakes a string or an object, so you can name a tool.
What held it back
- Not the top open model. Reflection concedes Kimi K3 is ahead on raw capability.
- Text only. No image parts.
- Reasoning counts toward max_tokens, so the visible answer has to fit what remains.
- Reasoning cannot be switched off. The endpoint starts at low.
- Unmeasured by us. Benchmarks are the publisher's.
What we tested
We have not run Beam 1.0 through our capability sets or content levels. This page uses Reflection's model card, the limits and parameters of our endpoint and the live price on the model page. We quote only the two coding benchmarks Reflection publishes, labelled as its own.
Prompts that worked
Starting points based on the endpoint's shape, not prompts we benchmarked.
1. Plan a migration. A repository-scale planning task.
Plan a repository migration with ordered edits, acceptance checks and rollback points.2. A tool step. One function, tool_choice set to auto.
Call report_status with status ready.Settings that matter: start at medium reasoning, use low for quick edits and xhigh or max for hard debugging; keep max_tokens high enough for reasoning plus the answer; MCP-style tools are exposed as function definitions on your side.
Roleplay and how far it writes
We have not tested Beam 1.0 on our content levels yet, so this review makes no claim about how far it writes or how often it softens or refuses. The model page carries no content-test results for it either. On our API we add no content filter; whatever comes back is the model's own behaviour.
Not tested yet: all five content levels, roleplay quality over many turns, and languages other than English. We will add results here once the runs are done.
Every character in a request should be an adult, keep real, identifiable people out of it, and you're responsible for the law where you publish.
Alternatives
- A stronger open model? Kimi K3 is the one Reflection itself says is ahead, and it has a full review.
- A cheaper coding-oriented option? Apex is specialised for React Native at $0.50 in.
- Multimodal and bigger? Muse Wonder 1.0 accepts images, video and audio.
How Beam 1.0 earns its Spicy Index
Each dimension below links to its full workings: the table row every point came from and why points were lost.
- Public leaderboards 40% of quality
- Not yet tested
- Role-play 15% of quality
- Not yet tested
- Creative writing 15% of quality
- 62.9
- Instruction following 15% of quality
- 85.0
- Long-context memory 15% of quality
- Not yet tested
- Capability 10.5% weight
- 40.0
- Freedom Score 30% weight
- Not yet tested
No exact match on a tracked public leaderboard yet. How it works
Our role-play suite hasn’t run on this model yet. How it works
Our long-context suite hasn’t run on this model yet. How it works
Freedom evidence is untested or insufficient. The Index retains the original quality and capability score, is marked preliminary and still receives a rank. Missing evidence is not zero. How it works
Freedom evidence is untested or insufficient. The Index retains the original quality and capability score, is marked preliminary and still receives a rank. Missing evidence is not zero.
Open the full test report →Capability, item by item
Points from the public scoring table. Upscaled tiers and limits we set ourselves don’t count.
- Context window (creator-published)Not declared
- 0.0 / 30
- Input modalities on SpicyAPIText only
- 0.0 / 25
- Tool useTools and tool_choice
- 15.0 / 15
- Structured outputAccepted, schema adherence verified
- 15.0 / 15
- Reasoning control5 levels: low · medium · high · xhigh · max
- 10.0 / 15
What Beam 1.0 can do on SpicyAPI
Straight from the live model specification on SpicyAPI. Some creators offer more in their own apps; this is what you can call through our API today.
| Feature | Chat |
|---|---|
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Max output per request | 943,718 tokens |
| Reasoning levels | low · medium · high · xhigh · max |
| Tool calling | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes |
How long it really takes
Measured on real jobs over the last 30 days, from request to finished result. Times include our own test runs.
- Output speed
- 217 tok/sIncludes time to first token
- Success rate
- Collecting data
A time appears once at least 10 completed jobs are in. Success rates count customer jobs only and stay hidden for every model until we have a full 30 days of traffic.
Models to consider instead of Beam 1.0
Moonshot AI
Kimi K3
A stronger open model?
- Spicy Index
- 77.8+8.9
- Freedom Score
- 74.4
- Price
- $5.40+260%/ 1M tokens · 3:1 input/output
Callstack
Apex
A cheaper coding-oriented option?
- Spicy Index
- 77.7+8.8
- Freedom Score
- —
- Price
- $1.13−25%/ 1M tokens · 3:1 input/output
Meta
Muse Wonder 1.0
Multimodal and bigger?
- Spicy Index
- 81.0+12.1
- Freedom Score
- —
- Price
- $8.00+433%/ 1M tokens · 3:1 input/output
What do you think?
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Beam 1.0 FAQ
Try Beam 1.0 yourself
Set every parameter in the Playground and see the exact price before you run it.
$1.50 per 1M mixed tokens (3 input : 1 output)
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