Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8
Claude 3.5 Sonnet (2024) and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 (2025) are frontier reasoning models from Anthropic and AI at Meta. Claude 3.5 Sonnet ships a 200k-token context window, while Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 ships a 1m-token context window. On MMLU PRO, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 leads by 3.3 pts. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.
Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 is ~1900% cheaper at $0.15/1M; pay for Claude 3.5 Sonnet only for coding workflow support.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | reasoning-heavy apps, multimodal apps, and tool-calling agents | multimodal apps, long-context analysis, and provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Coding, RAG, and Agents | Coding, RAG, and Agents |
| Context window | 200k | 1m |
| Cheapest output | $15/1M tokens | $0.60/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 6 tracked | 10 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 8 rows | MMLU PRO leader |
Decision tradeoffs
- Claude 3.5 Sonnet holds a shared-benchmark lead on LiveCodeBench, ahead by 5.3 points.
- Claude 3.5 Sonnet uniquely exposes Reasoning, Function calling, and Code execution in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Claude 3.5 Sonnet for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
- Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 holds a shared-benchmark lead on MMLU PRO, ahead by 3.3 points.
- Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.60/1M tokens.
- Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and procurement flexibility.
- Local decision data tags Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
$6,150
Cheapest tracked route/tier: GCP Vertex AI
Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8
$270
Cheapest tracked route/tier: OpenRouter
Estimated monthly gap: $5,880. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on Microsoft Foundry, OpenRouter, and GCP Vertex AI; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 is $14.40/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Check replacement coverage for Reasoning, Function calling, and Code execution before moving production traffic.
- Provider overlap exists on GCP Vertex AI, AWS Bedrock, and OpenRouter; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Claude 3.5 Sonnet is $14.40/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Claude 3.5 Sonnet adds Reasoning, Function calling, and Code execution in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2024-06-20 | 2025-04-05 |
| Context window | 200k | 1m |
| Parameters | 70B | 400B (17B active) |
| Architecture | decoder only | mixture of experts |
| License | Proprietary | Llama 4 Community |
| Openness | Proprietary | Open weights |
| Commercial use | Commercial use with conditions | Commercial use with conditions |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2024-04 | 2024-08 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $3/1M tokens | $0.15/1M tokens |
| Output price | $15/1M tokens | $0.60/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | Yes |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | No |
| Function calling | Yes | No |
| Tool use | No | No |
| Structured outputs | Yes | Yes |
| Code execution | Yes | No |
| IDE integration | No | No |
| Computer use | No | No |
| Parallel agents | No | No |
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU PRO | 77.2 | 80.5 |
| LiveCodeBench | 48.7 | 43.4 |
| Massive Multi-discipline Multimodal Understanding | 68.3 | 73.4 |
| HumanEval | 92.0 | 77.4 |
| Aider Polyglot | 51.6 | 15.6 |
| Chatbot Arena | 1340.0 | 1365.0 |
| BigCodeBench | 44.6 | 49.7 |
| MMMU Pro | 63.7 | 59.6 |
Deep dive
On shared benchmark coverage, MMLU PRO has Claude 3.5 Sonnet at 77.2 and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 at 80.5, with Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 ahead by 3.3 points; LiveCodeBench has Claude 3.5 Sonnet at 48.7 and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 at 43.4, with Claude 3.5 Sonnet ahead by 5.3 points; Massive Multi-discipline Multimodal Understanding has Claude 3.5 Sonnet at 68.3 and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 at 73.4, with Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 ahead by 5.1 points. The largest visible gap is 5.3 points on LiveCodeBench, which matters most when that benchmark mirrors your workload. Treat isolated benchmark wins as directional, because provider routing, prompt style, and tool access can move real application results.
The capability footprint differs most on reasoning mode: Claude 3.5 Sonnet, function calling: Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and code execution: Claude 3.5 Sonnet. Both models share vision, multimodal input, and structured outputs, so the practical split is not just feature count. Use those differences to decide whether the page is about raw model quality, agentic coding support, multimodal ingestion, or predictable structured API behavior.
For cost, Claude 3.5 Sonnet lists $3/1M input and $15/1M output tokens on the cheapest tracked provider, while Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 lists $0.15/1M input and $0.60/1M output tokens on the cheapest tracked provider. A 70/30 input-output blend puts Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 lower by about $6.31 per million blended tokens. Availability is 6 providers versus 10, so concentration risk also matters.
Choose Claude 3.5 Sonnet when coding workflow support are central to the workload. Choose Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 when long-context analysis, larger context windows, and lower input-token cost are more important. For production, rerun your own prompts through the exact provider, region, and tool stack you plan to ship.
FAQ
Which has a larger context window, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8?
Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 supports 1m tokens, while Claude 3.5 Sonnet supports 200k tokens. That gap matters most for long documents, large codebases, retrieval-heavy agents, and conversations where earlier context must remain visible.
Which is cheaper, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8?
Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 is cheaper on tracked token pricing. Claude 3.5 Sonnet costs $3/1M input and $15/1M output tokens. Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 costs $0.15/1M input and $0.60/1M output tokens. Provider discounts or batch pricing can still change the final bill.
Is Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 open source?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is listed under Proprietary. Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 is listed under Llama 4 Community. License labels affect whether you can self-host, redistribute weights, or rely only on hosted APIs, so confirm the upstream license before deployment.
Which is better for vision, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8?
Both Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 expose vision. The better choice depends on benchmark fit, context budget, pricing, and whether your provider route exposes the same capability surface.
Which is better for multimodal input, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8?
Both Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 expose multimodal input. The better choice depends on benchmark fit, context budget, pricing, and whether your provider route exposes the same capability surface.
Where can I run Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is available on GCP Vertex AI, AWS Bedrock, Anthropic, OpenRouter, and Microsoft Foundry. Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct FP8 is available on Microsoft Foundry, Together AI, OpenRouter, Fireworks AI, and DeepInfra. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options.
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Last reviewed: 2026-06-07. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.