Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite vs Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct
Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite (2025) and Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct (2024) are compact production models from AI at Meta and Microsoft Research. Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite ships a 8k-token context window, while Phi 3.5 Mini 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 ~800% cheaper at $0.10/1M; pay for Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct only for long-context analysis.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite | Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | tool-calling agents | provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Agents, Classification, and JSON / Tool use | Long context |
| Context window | 8k | 128k |
| Cheapest output | $0.10/1M tokens | $0.90/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 1 tracked | 2 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 and Structured outputs in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite for Agents, Classification, and JSON / Tool use.
- Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Local decision data tags Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct for Long context.
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
Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct
$945
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Fireworks AI
Estimated monthly gap: $840. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite and Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
- Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct is $0.80/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Check replacement coverage for JSON / Tool use and Structured outputs before moving production traffic.
- No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct and Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
- Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite is $0.80/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite adds JSON / Tool use and Structured outputs in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2025-07-15 | 2024-08-20 |
| Context window | 8k | 128k |
| Parameters | 8B | 3.8B |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Decoder Only |
| License | Llama 3 Community | MITOSI-approved |
| Openness | Open weights | Open source |
| Weights | Unknown | Unknown |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: conditional | Commercial use: permitted |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2024-03 | 2023-10 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite | Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.10/1M tokens | $0.90/1M tokens |
| Output price | $0.10/1M tokens | $0.90/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite | Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | No |
| Multimodal | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| JSON / Tool use | Yes | No |
| Structured outputs | Yes | No |
| 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: 2026-07-09. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.