ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

o3 vs Llama-3.2-3B

Llama-3.2-3B comes out ahead, 49 to 42 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. OpenAI

    o3

    Released Apr 16, 2025

    42/100
    • ECI146.9
    • Price$2.00 / $8.00
    • Context200K
  2. Our pick

    Meta

    Llama-3.2-3B

    Released Sep 25, 2024

    49/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.10 / $0.335
    • Context131K
  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Llama-3.2-3B is our pick

Llama-3.2-3B is the better all-round choice, scoring 49/100 against o3 (42). It leads on price. o3 wins on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

  • CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
  • Lowest priceLlama-3.2-3BLlama-3.2-3B $0.159 · o3 $3.50 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contexto3o3 200,000 · Llama-3.2-3B 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputso3o3: Text, Images, PDFs · Llama-3.2-3B: Text
  • Self-hostingLlama-3.2-3BPublishes downloadable weights (Llama 3.2 Community License)
How the score is built
MeasureWeighto3Llama-3.2-3B
Price50%2488
Inputs & features30%800
Context window20%3224
Overall100%42/10049/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

o3 vs Llama-3.2-3B specifications side by side
Specificationo3OpenAILlama-3.2-3BMeta
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)146.9—
ECI rank#63 of 148—
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions81.8%—
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics33.3%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics84.4%—
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues62.3%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions49.4%—
Price per million tokens
Input$2.00$0.10 (best)
Output$8.00$0.335 (best)
Cached input$0.50—
Blended (3:1)$3.50$0.159 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial OpenAI APIMedian of 3 providers
Limits
Context window200,000 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Max output100,000 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsYesNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · highNo
Tool callingYesNo
Structured outputYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenLlama 3.2 Community License
API model IDo3—
API providers18 (best)3
ReleasedApr 16, 2025Sep 25, 2024
Knowledge cutoffMay 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.

  • o3$36.00
  • Llama-3.2-3B$1.67
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: o3 or Llama-3.2-3B?

Llama-3.2-3B is the better all-round choice, scoring 49/100 against o3 (42). It leads on price. o3 wins on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

Which is cheaper, o3 or Llama-3.2-3B?

Llama-3.2-3B is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.335 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers). o3 costs $2.00 input / $8.00 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.159 per million tokens for Llama-3.2-3B versus $3.50 for o3 (22× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. o3 has an ECI of 146.9 and Llama-3.2-3B has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama-3.2-3B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Llama-3.2-3B does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.

Which has the bigger context window?

o3 has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Llama-3.2-3B. Maximum output per response: o3 up to 100,000, Llama-3.2-3B up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

o3 accepts text, images and PDFs; Llama-3.2-3B accepts text. o3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Llama-3.2-3B publishes its weights (Llama 3.2 Community License) and can be self-hosted; o3 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

o3 is the newest, released Apr 16, 2025. Llama-3.2-3B came out Sep 25, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: o3 May 2024, Llama-3.2-3B 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 Oct 4, 2026.