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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Gemma 3 4B IT vs Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Qwen2.5 7B Instruct

Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemma 3 4B IT 52, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 50, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 49). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Google

    Gemma 3 4B IT

    Released Mar 12, 2025

    52/100
    • ECI115.8
    • Price$0.05 / $0.10
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Gemma 3 4B IT

  2. Meta

    Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

    Released Jul 23, 2024

    49/100
    • ECI116.4
    • Price$0.06 / $0.08
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen2.5 7B Instruct

    Released Sep 19, 2024

    50/100
    • ECI118.5
    • Price$0.05 / $0.10
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Gemma 3 4B IT 52/100, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 50/100, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 49/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen2.5 7B Instruct for raw capability and Gemma 3 4B IT on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen2.5 7B InstructCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 118.5 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.4 · Gemma 3 4B IT 115.8
  • Lowest priceGemma 3 4B IT and Qwen2.5 7B InstructGemma 3 4B IT $0.063 · Qwen2.5 7B Instruct $0.063 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.065 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemma 3 4B IT and Qwen2.5 7B InstructGemma 3 4B IT 131,072 · Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 131,072 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemma 3 4B ITGemma 3 4B IT: Text, Images · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text · Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: Text
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemma 3 4B ITLlama-3.1-8B-InstructQwen2.5 7B Instruct
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%343538
Price25%100100100
Inputs & features15%502525
Context window10%252425
Overall100%52/10049/10050/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Gemma 3 4B IT vs Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Qwen2.5 7B Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationGemma 3 4B ITGoogleLlama-3.1-8B-InstructMetaQwen2.5 7B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)115.8116.4118.5 (best)
ECI rank#163 of 165#162 of 165#159 of 165 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions23.2%27.0%35.5% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics7.5% (best)1.7%2.5%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.05 (best)$0.06$0.05 (best)
Output$0.10$0.08 (best)$0.10
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.063 (best)$0.065$0.063 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 9 providersMedian of 17 providersMedian of 3 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens (best)128,000 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Max output131,072 tokens (best)4,096 tokens8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenOpenApache 2.0
API model ID———
API providers1018 (best)4
ReleasedMar 12, 2025Jul 23, 2024Sep 19, 2024
Knowledge cutoffAug 2024Dec 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.

  • Gemma 3 4B IT$0.70
  • Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct$0.76
  • Qwen2.5 7B Instruct$0.70
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemma 3 4B IT, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct or Qwen2.5 7B Instruct?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Gemma 3 4B IT 52/100, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 50/100, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 49/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen2.5 7B Instruct for raw capability and Gemma 3 4B IT on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 4B IT, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct or Qwen2.5 7B Instruct?

Gemma 3 4B IT is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.10 output per million tokens (median across 9 API providers). Qwen2.5 7B Instruct costs $0.05 input / $0.10 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers); Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct costs $0.06 input / $0.08 output per million tokens (median across 17 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.063 per million tokens for Gemma 3 4B IT versus $0.063 for Qwen2.5 7B Instruct (1× as much) and $0.065 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (1× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen2.5 7B Instruct scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 118.5 (#159 of 165), Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.4 (#162 of 165) and Gemma 3 4B IT 115.8 (#163 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (110.6–121.2 vs 107.0–121.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 35.5%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%, Gemma 3 4B IT 23.2%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemma 3 4B IT 7.5%, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 2.5%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 1.7%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemma 3 4B IT, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Qwen2.5 7B Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemma 3 4B IT and Qwen2.5 7B Instruct have the largest context windows (131,072 and 131,072 tokens), against 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct. Maximum output per response: Gemma 3 4B IT up to 131,072, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Gemma 3 4B IT accepts text and images; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct accepts text; Qwen2.5 7B Instruct accepts text. Gemma 3 4B IT handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, all three publish their weights (Apache 2.0), so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Gemma 3 4B IT is the newest, released Mar 12, 2025. Qwen2.5 7B Instruct came out Sep 19, 2024; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Gemma 3 4B IT Aug 2024, 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 Nov 2, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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