LLM Reference

Grok 3 Mini vs Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

Grok 3 Mini (2025) and Llama 3.1 70B Instruct (2024) are compact production models from xAI and AI at Meta. Grok 3 Mini ships a 131k-token context window, while Llama 3.1 70B Instruct ships a 128k-token context window. On pricing, Grok 3 Mini costs $0.25/1M 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.

Grok 3 Mini is ~60% cheaper at $0.25/1M; pay for Llama 3.1 70B Instruct only for provider fit.

Decision scorecard

Local evidence first
SignalGrok 3 MiniLlama 3.1 70B Instruct
Best formultimodal apps and provider-routed productionprovider-routed production
Decision fitRAG, Long context, and VisionCoding, RAG, and Long context
Context window131k128k
Cheapest output$1.27/1M tokens$0.40/1M tokens
Provider routes2 tracked13 tracked
Shared benchmarks0 shared0 shared

Decision tradeoffs

Choose Grok 3 Mini when...
  • 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.
Choose Llama 3.1 70B Instruct when...
  • Llama 3.1 70B Instruct has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.40/1M tokens.
  • Llama 3.1 70B Instruct has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
  • Local decision data tags Llama 3.1 70B Instruct for Coding, RAG, and Long context.

Monthly cost at traffic

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

Lower estimate Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

Grok 3 Mini

$518

Cheapest tracked route/tier: Microsoft Foundry

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

$420

Cheapest tracked route/tier: Hyperbolic AI Inference

Estimated monthly gap: $97.50. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.

Switch friction

Grok 3 Mini -> Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
  • Provider overlap exists on Microsoft Foundry and OpenRouter; start route-level A/B tests there.
  • Llama 3.1 70B Instruct is $0.87/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
  • Check replacement coverage for Vision and Multimodal before moving production traffic.
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct -> Grok 3 Mini
  • Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter and Microsoft Foundry; start route-level A/B tests there.
  • Grok 3 Mini is $0.87/1M 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
Released2025-02-172024-07-23
Context window131k128k
Parameters—70B
Architecture-Decoder Only
LicenseProprietaryLlama 3 Community
OpennessProprietaryOpen weights
WeightsNot releasedAvailable
CodeUnknownUnknown
Commercial useCommercial use: conditionalCommercial use: conditional
Knowledge cutoff2024-112023-12

Pricing and availability

Pricing attributeGrok 3 MiniLlama 3.1 70B Instruct
Input price$0.25/1M tokens$0.40/1M tokens
Output price$1.27/1M tokens$0.40/1M tokens
Providers
OpenRouterMicrosoft Foundry
Cloudflare Workers AIOctoAI API (Deprecated)Together AIFireworks AINVIDIA NIMMicrosoft Foundry

Capabilities

CapabilityGrok 3 MiniLlama 3.1 70B Instruct
VisionYesNo
MultimodalYesNo
ReasoningNoNo
JSON / Tool useNoNo
Structured outputsYesYes
Code executionNoNo
IDE integrationNoNo
Computer useNoNo
Parallel agentsNoNo

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.