LLM Reference

Gemini 2.5 Flash Live API vs Llama 3.1 405B Instruct

Gemini 2.5 Flash Live API (2025) and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct (2024) are compact production models from Google DeepMind and AI at Meta. Gemini 2.5 Flash Live API ships a 128k-token context window, while Llama 3.1 405B Instruct ships a 128k-token context window. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.

Gemini 2.5 Flash Live API is ~380% cheaper at $0.50/1M; pay for Llama 3.1 405B Instruct only for provider fit.

Decision scorecard

Local evidence first
SignalGemini 2.5 Flash Live APILlama 3.1 405B Instruct
Best formultimodal apps and tool-calling agentsprovider-routed production
Decision fitRAG, Agents, and Long contextRAG, Long context, and Classification
Context window128k128k
Cheapest output$2/1M tokens$2.40/1M tokens
Provider routes1 tracked11 tracked
Shared benchmarks0 shared0 shared

Decision tradeoffs

Choose Gemini 2.5 Flash Live API when...
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash Live API has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $2/1M tokens.
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash Live API uniquely exposes Vision, Multimodal, and JSON / Tool use in local model data.
  • Local decision data tags Gemini 2.5 Flash Live API for RAG, Agents, and Long context.
Choose Llama 3.1 405B Instruct when...
  • Llama 3.1 405B Instruct has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
  • Llama 3.1 405B Instruct uniquely exposes Structured outputs in local model data.
  • Local decision data tags Llama 3.1 405B Instruct for RAG, Long context, and Classification.

Monthly cost at traffic

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

Lower estimate Gemini 2.5 Flash Live API

Gemini 2.5 Flash Live API

$900

Cheapest tracked route/tier: Google AI Studio

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct

$2,520

Cheapest tracked route/tier: AWS Bedrock

Estimated monthly gap: $1,620. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.

Switch friction

Gemini 2.5 Flash Live API -> Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
  • No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Gemini 2.5 Flash Live API and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
  • Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is $0.40/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
  • Check replacement coverage for Vision, Multimodal, and JSON / Tool use before moving production traffic.
  • Llama 3.1 405B Instruct adds Structured outputs in local capability data.
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct -> Gemini 2.5 Flash Live API
  • No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Llama 3.1 405B Instruct and Gemini 2.5 Flash Live API; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash Live API is $0.40/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
  • Check replacement coverage for Structured outputs before moving production traffic.
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash Live API adds Vision, Multimodal, and JSON / Tool use in local capability data.

Specs

Specification
Released2025-12-012024-07-23
Context window128k128k
Parameters405B
ArchitectureDecoder OnlyDecoder Only
LicenseProprietaryLlama 3 Community
OpennessProprietaryOpen weights
WeightsNot releasedAvailable
CodeUnknownUnknown
Commercial useCommercial use: conditionalCommercial use: conditional
Knowledge cutoff2025-012023-12

Pricing and availability

Pricing attributeGemini 2.5 Flash Live APILlama 3.1 405B Instruct
Input price$0.50/1M tokens$2.40/1M tokens
Output price$2/1M tokens$2.40/1M tokens
Providers

Capabilities

CapabilityGemini 2.5 Flash Live APILlama 3.1 405B Instruct
VisionYesNo
MultimodalYesNo
ReasoningNoNo
JSON / Tool useYesNo
Structured outputsNoYes
Code executionNoNo
IDE integrationNoNo
Computer useNoNo
Parallel agentsNoNo

Benchmarks

No shared benchmark scores are currently available for this pair.

Continue comparing

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