ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 71 to 46 on our weighted score, though Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct is 11% cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    Google

    Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite

    Released Jun 17, 2025

    71/100
    • ECI133.9
    • Price$0.10 / $0.40
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite

  2. Meta

    Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

    Released Jul 23, 2024

    46/100
    • ECI116.6
    • Price$0.152 / $0.167
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is our pick

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (46). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.6
  • Lowest priceLlama-3.1-8B-InstructLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.156 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite $0.175 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text
  • Self-hostingLlama-3.1-8B-InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%5836
Price25%8688
Inputs & features15%10025
Context window10%6124
Overall100%71/10046/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogleLlama-3.1-8B-InstructMeta
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)133.9 (best)116.6
ECI rank#118 of 148 (best)#145 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—27.0%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—1.7%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.10 (best)$0.152
Output$0.40$0.167 (best)
Cached input$0.01—
Blended (3:1)$0.175$0.156 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Google APIMedian of 9 providers
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)128,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)4,096 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsYesNo
AudioYesNo
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYesNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDgemini-2.5-flash-lite—
API providers20 (best)9
ReleasedJun 17, 2025Jul 23, 2024
Knowledge cutoffJan 2025Dec 2023
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite$1.80
  • Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct$1.85
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (46). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct?

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct is cheaper at $0.152 input / $0.167 output per million tokens (median across 9 API providers). Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite costs $0.10 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official Google API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.156 per million tokens for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct versus $0.175 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (1.1× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 (#118 of 148) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.6 (#145 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (129.8–136.3 vs 106.3–121.6), so the gap is a real one.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct accepts text. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the newest, released Jun 17, 2025. Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Jan 2025, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct Dec 2023.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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