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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct vs Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs GPT-4o mini

GPT-4o mini comes out ahead, 56 to 46 and 44 on our weighted score, though Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct is 41% cheaper per token.

  1. Meta

    Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct

    Released Jul 23, 2024

    44/100
    • ECI125.9
    • Price$0.72 / $0.72
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct

  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. Our pick

    OpenAI

    GPT-4o mini

    Released Jul 18, 2024

    56/100
    • ECI126.6
    • Price$0.15 / $0.60
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove GPT-4o mini
01 — Verdict

GPT-4o mini is our pick

GPT-4o mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (46) and Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct (44). It leads on inputs & features. Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGPT-4o miniCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-4o mini 126.6 · Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 125.9 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.6
  • Lowest priceLlama-3.1-8B-InstructLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.156 · GPT-4o mini $0.263 · Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct $0.72 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameLlama-3.1-70B-Instruct 128,000 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 · GPT-4o mini 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGPT-4o miniLlama-3.1-70B-Instruct: Text · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text · GPT-4o mini: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingLlama-3.1-70B-Instruct and Llama-3.1-8B-InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightLlama-3.1-70B-InstructLlama-3.1-8B-InstructGPT-4o mini
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%483649
Price25%578877
Inputs & features15%252570
Context window10%242424
Overall100%44/10046/10056/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct vs Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs GPT-4o mini specifications side by side
SpecificationLlama-3.1-70B-InstructMetaLlama-3.1-8B-InstructMetaGPT-4o miniOpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)125.9116.6126.6 (best)
ECI rank#136 of 148#145 of 148#135 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions44.2% (best)27.0%37.7%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics——0.7%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics3.6%1.7%6.9% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions——8.3%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.72$0.152$0.15 (best)
Output$0.72$0.167 (best)$0.60
Cached input——$0.075
Blended (3:1)$0.72$0.156 (best)$0.263
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 5 providersMedian of 9 providersOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens128,000 tokens128,000 tokens
Max output4,096 tokens4,096 tokens16,384 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoYes
PDFsNoNoYes
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenProprietary
API model ID——gpt-4o-mini
API providers5921 (best)
ReleasedJul 23, 2024Jul 23, 2024Jul 18, 2024
Knowledge cutoffDec 2023Dec 2023Sep 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.

  • Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct$8.64
  • Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct$1.85
  • GPT-4o mini$2.70
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct or GPT-4o mini?

GPT-4o mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (46) and Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct (44). It leads on inputs & features. Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct or GPT-4o mini?

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct is cheaper at $0.152 input / $0.167 output per million tokens (median across 9 API providers). GPT-4o mini costs $0.15 input / $0.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price); Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct costs $0.72 input / $0.72 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers). 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 $0.263 for GPT-4o mini (1.7× as much) and $0.72 for Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct (4.6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

GPT-4o mini scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-4o mini 126.6 (#135 of 148), Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 125.9 (#136 of 148) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.6 (#145 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (120.5–128.5 vs 121.0–128.1), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 44.2%, GPT-4o mini 37.7%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-4o mini 6.9%, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 3.6%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 1.7%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and GPT-4o mini yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-4o mini 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?

Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and GPT-4o mini share the same 128,000-token context window. Maximum output per response: Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct up to 4,096, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096, GPT-4o mini up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct accepts text; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct accepts text; GPT-4o mini accepts text, images and PDFs. GPT-4o mini handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; GPT-4o mini is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct is the newest, released Jul 23, 2024. Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024; GPT-4o mini came out Jul 18, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct Dec 2023, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct Dec 2023, GPT-4o mini Sep 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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