DeepSeek V3.1 vs Llama 3 70B Instruct

Name: DeepSeek V3.1
Author: DeepSeek

DeepSeek V3.1 (2025) and Llama 3 70B Instruct (2024) are compact production models from DeepSeek and AI at Meta. DeepSeek V3.1 ships a 64k-token context window, while Llama 3 70B Instruct ships a 8k-token context window. On MMLU PRO, DeepSeek V3.1 leads by 25.9 pts. On pricing, DeepSeek V3.1 costs $0.27/1M input tokens versus $0.40/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.

DeepSeek V3.1 is ~48% cheaper at $0.27/1M; pay for Llama 3 70B Instruct only for provider fit.

Decision scorecard

Local evidence first

Signal	DeepSeek V3.1	Llama 3 70B Instruct	How to read it
Best for	multimodal apps and provider-routed production	provider-routed production	Use-case synthesis from product type, capability flags, context, and provider data.
Decision fit	Coding, Agents, and Vision	Coding, Classification, and JSON / Tool use	Primary workload tags from local decision data.
Context window	64k	8k	Higher is better when prompts, retrieval chunks, or transcripts are large.
Cheapest output	$1/1M tokens	$0.40/1M tokens	Cheapest tracked provider route; verify your exact region and tier.
Provider routes	8 tracked	18 tracked	Broader coverage can reduce vendor lock-in and fallback risk.
Shared benchmarks	MMLU PRO leader	1 shared	Visible benchmark lead is 25.9 points on MMLU PRO.

Decision tradeoffs

Choose DeepSeek V3.1 when...

DeepSeek V3.1 holds a shared-benchmark lead on MMLU PRO, ahead by 25.9 points.
DeepSeek V3.1 has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
DeepSeek V3.1 uniquely exposes Vision, Multimodal, and Code execution in local model data.
Local decision data tags DeepSeek V3.1 for Coding, Agents, and Vision.

Choose Llama 3 70B Instruct when...

Llama 3 70B Instruct has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.40/1M tokens.
Llama 3 70B Instruct has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
Local decision data tags Llama 3 70B Instruct for Coding, Classification, and JSON / Tool use.

Monthly cost at traffic

Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.

Lower estimate Llama 3 70B Instruct

Requests / monthInput tokens / requestOutput tokens / request

DeepSeek V3.1

$466

Cheapest tracked route/tier: Novita AI

Llama 3 70B Instruct

$420

Cheapest tracked route/tier: Hyperbolic AI Inference

Estimated monthly gap: $46.00. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.

Switch friction

DeepSeek V3.1 -> Llama 3 70B Instruct

Provider overlap exists on AWS Bedrock, Microsoft Foundry, and NVIDIA NIM; start route-level A/B tests there.
Llama 3 70B Instruct is $0.60/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
Check replacement coverage for Vision, Multimodal, and Code execution before moving production traffic.

Llama 3 70B Instruct -> DeepSeek V3.1

Provider overlap exists on Microsoft Foundry, Fireworks AI, and NVIDIA NIM; start route-level A/B tests there.
DeepSeek V3.1 is $0.60/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
DeepSeek V3.1 adds Vision, Multimodal, and Code execution in local capability data.

Specs

Specification	DeepSeek V3.1 DeepSeek	Llama 3 70B Instruct AI at Meta
Released	2025-08-21	2024-04-18
Context window	64k	8k
Parameters	671B total, 37B active (MoE)	70B
Architecture	Mixture of Experts	Decoder Only
License	MITOSI-approved	Llama 3 Community
Openness	Open source	Open weights
Weights	Unknown	Available
Code	Unknown	Unknown
Commercial use	Commercial use: permitted	Commercial use: conditional
Knowledge cutoff	-	2023-12

Pricing and availability

Pricing attribute	DeepSeek V3.1	Llama 3 70B Instruct
Input price	$0.27/1M tokens	$0.40/1M tokens
Output price	$1/1M tokens	$0.40/1M tokens
Providers	Microsoft Foundry Fireworks AI NVIDIA NIM Together AI AWS Bedrock Replicate API	GCP Vertex AI AWS Bedrock Microsoft Foundry NVIDIA NIM DeepInfra OctoAI API (Deprecated)

Capabilities

Capability	DeepSeek V3.1	Llama 3 70B Instruct
Vision	Yes	No
Multimodal	Yes	No
Reasoning	No	No
JSON / 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	DeepSeek V3.1	Llama 3 70B Instruct
MMLU PRO	83.3	57.4

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Model pages

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Last reviewed: 2026-07-11. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.

Both models

DeepSeek V3.1 Llama 3 70B Instruct