ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Claude Haiku 3

Too close to call on our weighted score (Claude Haiku 3 47, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 46). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. 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

  2. Anthropic

    Claude Haiku 3

    Released Mar 13, 2024

    47/100
    • ECI118.4
    • Price$0.25 / $1.25
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Haiku 3

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Claude Haiku 3 47/100, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 46/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Haiku 3 for raw capability and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityClaude Haiku 3Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Haiku 3 118.4 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.6
  • Lowest priceLlama-3.1-8B-InstructLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.156 · Claude Haiku 3 $0.50 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextClaude Haiku 3Claude Haiku 3 200,000 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Haiku 3Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text · Claude Haiku 3: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingLlama-3.1-8B-InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightLlama-3.1-8B-InstructClaude Haiku 3
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%3638
Price25%8864
Inputs & features15%2560
Context window10%2432
Overall100%46/10047/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Claude Haiku 3 specifications side by side
SpecificationLlama-3.1-8B-InstructMetaClaude Haiku 3Anthropic
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)116.6118.4 (best)
ECI rank#145 of 148#143 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions27.0%36.3% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics1.7%1.8% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.152 (best)$0.25
Output$0.167 (best)$1.25
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.156 (best)$0.50
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 9 providersMedian of 2 providers
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens200,000 tokens (best)
Max output4,096 tokens4,096 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model ID——
API providers9 (best)2
ReleasedJul 23, 2024Mar 13, 2024
Knowledge cutoffDec 2023Aug 31, 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-3.1-8B-Instruct$1.85
  • Claude Haiku 3$5.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct or Claude Haiku 3?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Claude Haiku 3 47/100, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 46/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Haiku 3 for raw capability and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct or Claude Haiku 3?

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct is cheaper at $0.152 input / $0.167 output per million tokens (median across 9 API providers). Claude Haiku 3 costs $0.25 input / $1.25 output per million tokens (median across 2 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 $0.50 for Claude Haiku 3 (3.2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Claude Haiku 3 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Haiku 3 118.4 (#143 of 148) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.6 (#145 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (110.5–121.2 vs 106.3–121.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Claude Haiku 3 36.3%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Haiku 3 1.8%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 1.7%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Claude Haiku 3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Haiku 3 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?

Claude Haiku 3 has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct. Maximum output per response: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096, Claude Haiku 3 up to 4,096 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct accepts text; Claude Haiku 3 accepts text, images and PDFs. Claude Haiku 3 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; Claude Haiku 3 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct is the newest, released Jul 23, 2024. Claude Haiku 3 came out Mar 13, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct Dec 2023, Claude Haiku 3 Aug 31, 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

Related comparisons