Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct vs Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct vs GPT-4o mini
GPT-4o mini comes out ahead, 56 to 46 and 44 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
MetaLlama-3.1-70B-Instruct
44/100- ECI125.9
- Price$0.72 / $0.72
- Context128K
- Meta
Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct
46/100- ECI127.3
- Price$0.59 / $0.724
- Context128K
- Our pick
OpenAIGPT-4o mini
56/100- ECI126.6
- Price$0.15 / $0.60
- Context128K
GPT-4o mini is our pick
GPT-4o mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct (46) and Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct (44). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityLlama-3.3-70B-InstructCapabilities Index (ECI): Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 127.3 · GPT-4o mini 126.6 · Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 125.9
- Lowest priceGPT-4o miniGPT-4o mini $0.263 · Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct $0.624 · Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct $0.72 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextAbout the sameLlama-3.1-70B-Instruct 128,000 · Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 128,000 · GPT-4o mini 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGPT-4o miniLlama-3.1-70B-Instruct: Text · Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct: Text · GPT-4o mini: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingLlama-3.1-70B-Instruct and Llama-3.3-70B-InstructPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct | Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct | GPT-4o mini |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 48 | 49 | 49 |
| Price | 25% | 57 | 60 | 77 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 25 | 25 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 44/100 | 46/100 | 56/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Llama-3.1-70B-InstructMeta | Llama-3.3-70B-InstructMeta | GPT-4o miniOpenAI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 125.9 | 127.3 (best) | 126.6 |
| ECI rank | #136 of 148 | #133 of 148 (best) | #135 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 44.2% | 47.4% (best) | 37.7% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | — | 0.7% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 3.6% | 5.1% | 6.9% (best) |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | — | 8.3% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.72 | $0.59 | $0.15 (best) |
| Output | $0.72 | $0.724 | $0.60 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | $0.075 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.72 | $0.624 | $0.263 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 5 providers | Median of 21 providers | Official OpenAI API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 4,096 tokens | 4,096 tokens | 16,384 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | llama-3.3-70b-instruct | gpt-4o-mini |
| API providers | 5 | 24 (best) | 21 |
| Released | Jul 23, 2024 | Dec 6, 2024 | Jul 18, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Dec 2023 | Dec 2023 | Sep 2023 |
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-3.3-70B-Instruct$7.35
- GPT-4o mini$2.70
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct or GPT-4o mini?
GPT-4o mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct (46) and Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct (44). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct or GPT-4o mini?
GPT-4o mini is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct costs $0.59 input / $0.724 output per million tokens (median across 21 API providers; free on Llama); 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 $0.263 per million tokens for GPT-4o mini versus $0.624 for Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct (2.4× as much) and $0.72 for Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct (2.7× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 127.3 (#133 of 148), GPT-4o mini 126.6 (#135 of 148) and Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 125.9 (#136 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (122.5–129.5 vs 120.5–128.5), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 47.4%, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 44.2%, GPT-4o mini 37.7%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-4o mini 6.9%, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 5.1%, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 3.6%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct and GPT-4o mini yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Llama-3.3-70B-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?
Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct, Llama-3.3-70B-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-3.3-70B-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-3.3-70B-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-3.3-70B-Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; GPT-4o mini is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct is the newest, released Dec 6, 2024. Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024; GPT-4o mini came out Jul 18, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct Dec 2023, Llama-3.3-70B-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.
Related comparisons
- Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct vs Qwen2.5 32B InstructAlibaba (Qwen) · ECI 128.5
- Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct vs Nova ProAmazon · ECI 123.8
- Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct vs Claude Haiku 3.5Anthropic · ECI 127.2
- Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AI · ECI 127.5
- Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct vs Qwen2.5 32B InstructAlibaba (Qwen) · ECI 128.5
- Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct vs DeepSeek-V3DeepSeek · ECI 132.3
