DBRX Instruct is a free, open-source large language model built by Databricks for instruction-following tasks in software development and enterprise applications. It uses a mixture-of-experts architecture to balance performance with efficiency, and integrates natively with Databricks' data platform—a meaningful advantage if you're already in that ecosystem. The model shows strong results on coding and reasoning benchmarks, but carries real limitations: no vision capabilities, a shorter context window than Claude or GPT-4, and less real-world adoption in mainstream enterprise settings. For teams deeply embedded in Databricks infrastructure, it's a compelling option; for everyone else, it remains a secondary choice.