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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3 8B vs Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct

Too close to call on our weighted score (Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58, Qwen3 8B 56). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 8B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    56/100
    • ECI136.2
    • Price$0.18 / $0.70
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 8B

  2. Meta

    Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct

    Released Apr 5, 2025

    58/100
    • ECI132.2
    • Price$0.321 / $0.91
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct

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01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58/100, Qwen3 8B 56/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 8B for raw capability and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 8BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 8B 136.2 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2
  • Lowest priceQwen3 8BQwen3 8B $0.31 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct $0.468 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 1,000,000 · Qwen3 8B 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructQwen3 8B: Text · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 8BLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%6156
Price25%7466
Inputs & features15%3550
Context window10%2460
Overall100%56/10058/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3 8B vs Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 8BAlibaba (Qwen)Llama 4 Maverick 17B InstructMeta
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)136.2 (best)132.2
ECI rank#113 of 148 (best)#122 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions56.8%67.0% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics56.1% (best)20.6%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.18 (best)$0.321
Output$0.70 (best)$0.91
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.31 (best)$0.468
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 6 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output8,192 tokens16,384 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpen
API model IDqwen3-8b—
API providers16 (best)
ReleasedApr 28, 2025Apr 5, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025Aug 2024
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.

  • Qwen3 8B$3.20
  • Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct$5.03
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 8B or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58/100, Qwen3 8B 56/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 8B for raw capability and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 8B or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct?

Qwen3 8B is cheaper at $0.18 input / $0.70 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct costs $0.321 input / $0.91 output per million tokens (median across 6 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.31 per million tokens for Qwen3 8B versus $0.468 for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct (1.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 8B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 8B 136.2 (#113 of 148) and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2 (#122 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (129.7–138.1 vs 128.0–134.1), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 67.0%, Qwen3 8B 56.8%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 8B 56.1%, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 20.6%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 8B and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 8B 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 Maverick 17B Instruct has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen3 8B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 8B up to 8,192, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 8B accepts text; Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct accepts text and images. Llama 4 Maverick 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?

Qwen3 8B is the newest, released Apr 28, 2025. Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct came out Apr 5, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 8B Apr 2025, Llama 4 Maverick 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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