Grok 3 Mini vs Llama 3 8B Instruct
Grok 3 Mini (2025) and Llama 3 8B Instruct (2024) are compact production models from xAI and AI at Meta. Grok 3 Mini ships a 131k-token context window, while Llama 3 8B Instruct ships a 8k-token context window. On pricing, Llama 3 8B Instruct costs $0.02/1M input tokens versus $0.25/1M 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.
Llama 3 8B Instruct is ~1150% cheaper at $0.02/1M; pay for Grok 3 Mini only for long-context analysis.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Grok 3 Mini | Llama 3 8B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | multimodal apps and provider-routed production | provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | RAG, Long context, and Vision | Coding, Classification, and JSON / Tool use |
| Context window | 131k | 8k |
| Cheapest output | $1.27/1M tokens | $0.05/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 2 tracked | 17 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Grok 3 Mini has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Grok 3 Mini uniquely exposes Vision and Multimodal in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Grok 3 Mini for RAG, Long context, and Vision.
- Llama 3 8B Instruct has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.05/1M tokens.
- Llama 3 8B Instruct has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Local decision data tags Llama 3 8B 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.
Grok 3 Mini
$518
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Microsoft Foundry
Llama 3 8B Instruct
$28.50
Cheapest tracked route/tier: DeepInfra
Estimated monthly gap: $489. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on Microsoft Foundry and OpenRouter; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Llama 3 8B Instruct is $1.22/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Check replacement coverage for Vision and Multimodal before moving production traffic.
- Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter and Microsoft Foundry; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Grok 3 Mini is $1.22/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Grok 3 Mini adds Vision and Multimodal in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2025-02-17 | 2024-04-18 |
| Context window | 131k | 8k |
| Parameters | — | 8B |
| Architecture | - | Decoder Only |
| License | Proprietary | Llama 3 Community |
| Openness | Proprietary | Open weights |
| Weights | Not released | Available |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: conditional | Commercial use: conditional |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2024-11 | 2023-03 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Grok 3 Mini | Llama 3 8B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.25/1M tokens | $0.02/1M tokens |
| Output price | $1.27/1M tokens | $0.05/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Grok 3 Mini | Llama 3 8B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | No |
| Multimodal | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| JSON / Tool use | No | No |
| Structured outputs | Yes | Yes |
| Code execution | No | No |
| IDE integration | No | No |
| Computer use | No | No |
| Parallel agents | No | No |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark scores are currently available for this pair.
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Last reviewed: 2026-07-11. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.