Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct comes out ahead, 62 to 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
- Our pickMeta
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
62/100- ECI129.7
- Price$0.225 / $0.69
- Context10M
Add a model
Make it a three-way comparison.
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is our pick
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct (44). It leads on capability, price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructCapabilities Index (ECI): Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 · Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 125.9
- Lowest priceLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct $0.341 · Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct $0.72 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 10,000,000 · Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama-3.1-70B-Instruct: Text · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct: Text, Images
- Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
| Measure | Weight | Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct | Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 48 | 52 |
| Price | 25% | 57 | 72 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 25 | 50 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 100 |
| Overall | 100% | 44/100 | 62/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Llama-3.1-70B-InstructMeta | Llama 4 Scout 17B InstructMeta |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 125.9 | 129.7 (best) |
| ECI rank | #136 of 148 | #126 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 44.2% | 51.8% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 3.6% | 7.8% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.72 | $0.225 (best) |
| Output | $0.72 | $0.69 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.72 | $0.341 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 5 providers | Median of 4 providers |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 10,000,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 4,096 tokens | 16,384 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Open | Open |
| API model ID | — | — |
| API providers | 5 (best) | 4 |
| Released | Jul 23, 2024 | Apr 5, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Dec 2023 | Aug 2024 |
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 4 Scout 17B Instruct$3.63
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct or Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct (44). It leads on capability, price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct or Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is cheaper at $0.225 input / $0.69 output per million tokens (median across 4 API providers). 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 $0.341 per million tokens for Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct versus $0.72 for Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct (2.1× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 (#126 of 148) and Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 125.9 (#136 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (124.8–131.4 vs 121.0–128.1), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8%, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 44.2%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 7.8%, 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 and Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 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?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct has the largest context window at 10,000,000 tokens, against 128,000 for Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct. Maximum output per response: Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct up to 4,096, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct accepts text; Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct accepts text and images. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Yes, both publish their weights, so you can self-host them.
Which is newer?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the newest, released Apr 5, 2025. Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct Dec 2023, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct Aug 2024.
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
- Add GPT-4o miniThree-way comparison
- Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct vs GPT-4o miniOpenAI · ECI 126.6
- 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 4 Scout 17B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AI · ECI 127.5
- Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct vs DeepSeek-V3DeepSeek · ECI 132.3
