Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite vs Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite (2025) and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct (2024) are compact production models from AI at Meta. Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite ships a 8k-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.
Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite is ~2300% cheaper at $0.10/1M; pay for Llama 3.1 405B Instruct only for long-context analysis.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite | Llama 3.1 405B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | tool-calling agents | provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Agents, Classification, and JSON / Tool use | RAG, Long context, and Classification |
| Context window | 8k | 128k |
| Cheapest output | $0.10/1M tokens | $2.40/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 1 tracked | 11 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.10/1M tokens.
- Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite uniquely exposes JSON / Tool use in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite for Agents, Classification, and JSON / Tool use.
- Llama 3.1 405B Instruct has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Llama 3.1 405B Instruct has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- 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.
Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite
$105
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Together AI
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
$2,520
Cheapest tracked route/tier: AWS Bedrock
Estimated monthly gap: $2,415. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on Together AI; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is $2.30/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Check replacement coverage for JSON / Tool use before moving production traffic.
- Provider overlap exists on Together AI; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite is $2.30/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite adds JSON / Tool use in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2025-07-15 | 2024-07-23 |
| Context window | 8k | 128k |
| Parameters | 8B | 405B |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Decoder Only |
| License | Llama 3 Community | Llama 3 Community |
| Openness | Open weights | Open weights |
| Weights | Unknown | Available |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: conditional | Commercial use: conditional |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2024-03 | 2023-12 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite | Llama 3.1 405B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.10/1M tokens | $2.40/1M tokens |
| Output price | $0.10/1M tokens | $2.40/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite | Llama 3.1 405B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | No |
| Multimodal | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| JSON / Tool use | Yes | 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.