solar-mini vs Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B vs Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct
Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct comes out ahead, 64 to 51 and 50 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Upstagesolar-mini
50/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.15
- Context33K
Nous ResearchHermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B
51/100- ECI—
- Price$0.14 / $0.14
- Context8K
- Our pick
MetaLlama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct
64/100- ECI—
- Price$0.055 / $0.345
- Context128K
Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct is our pick
Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 64/100 against Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B (51) and solar-mini (50). It leads on price, 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-3.2-11B-Vision-InstructLlama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct $0.128 · Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B $0.14 · solar-mini $0.15 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextLlama-3.2-11B-Vision-InstructLlama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct 128,000 · solar-mini 32,768 · Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B 8,192 tokens
- Widest inputsLlama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instructsolar-mini: Text · Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B: Text · Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct: Text, Images
- Self-hostingHermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B and Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-InstructPublishes downloadable weights (Llama 3 Community License)
| Measure | Weight | solar-mini | Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B | Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 85 | 87 | 88 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 25 | 25 | 50 |
| Context window | 20% | 0 | 0 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 50/100 | 51/100 | 64/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | solar-miniUpstage | Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8BNous Research | Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-InstructMeta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.15 | $0.14 | $0.055 (best) |
| Output | $0.15 | $0.14 (best) | $0.345 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.15 | $0.14 | $0.128 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Upstage API | Median of 2 providers | Median of 3 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 32,768 tokens | 8,192 tokens | 128,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 4,096 tokens | 8,192 tokens (best) | 4,096 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenLlama 3 Community License | Open |
| API model ID | solar-mini | — | — |
| API providers | 1 | 2 | 4 (best) |
| Released | Jun 12, 2024 | Apr 30, 2024 | Sep 25, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Sep 2024 | — | Dec 2023 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- solar-mini$1.80
- Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B$1.68
- Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct$1.24
Which should you choose?
Which is better: solar-mini, Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B or Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct?
Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 64/100 against Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B (51) and solar-mini (50). It leads on price, 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, solar-mini, Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B or Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct?
Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct is cheaper at $0.055 input / $0.345 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers). Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B costs $0.14 input / $0.14 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers); solar-mini costs $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (official Upstage API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.128 per million tokens for Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct versus $0.14 for Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B (1.1× as much) and $0.15 for solar-mini (1.2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. solar-mini has not been scored yet, Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B has not been scored yet and Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for solar-mini, Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B and Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct has the largest context window at 128,000 tokens, against 32,768 for solar-mini and 8,192 for Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B. Maximum output per response: solar-mini up to 4,096, Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B up to 8,192, Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
solar-mini accepts text; Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B accepts text; Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct accepts text and images. Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B and Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct publishes its weights (Llama 3 Community License) and can be self-hosted; solar-mini is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct is the newest, released Sep 25, 2024. solar-mini came out Jun 12, 2024; Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B came out Apr 30, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: solar-mini Sep 2024, Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct 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 Nov 2, 2026.
