Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite vs ShieldGemma 9B
Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite (2025) and ShieldGemma 9B (2024) are compact production models from AI at Meta and Google DeepMind. Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite ships a 8k-token context window, while ShieldGemma 9B ships a 8k-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 safer overall; choose ShieldGemma 9B when provider fit matters.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite | ShieldGemma 9B |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | tool-calling agents | general production evaluation |
| Decision fit | Agents, Classification, and JSON / Tool use | Classification |
| Context window | 8k | 8k |
| Cheapest output | $0.10/1M tokens | - |
| Provider routes | 1 tracked | 1 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- 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.
- Local decision data tags ShieldGemma 9B for 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
ShieldGemma 9B
Unavailable
No complete token price in local provider data
Cost delta unavailable until both models have sourced input and output token prices.
Switch friction
- No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite and ShieldGemma 9B; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
- Check replacement coverage for JSON / Tool use and Structured outputs before moving production traffic.
- No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for ShieldGemma 9B and Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
- Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite adds JSON / Tool use and Structured outputs in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2025-07-15 | 2024-07-01 |
| Context window | 8k | 8k |
| Parameters | 8B | 9B |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Decoder Only |
| License | Llama 3 Community | Gemma |
| Openness | Open weights | Open weights |
| Weights | Unknown | Unknown |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: conditional | Commercial use: conditional |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2024-03 | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite | ShieldGemma 9B |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.10/1M tokens | - |
| Output price | $0.10/1M tokens | - |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Together AI - Llama 3 8B Lite | ShieldGemma 9B |
|---|---|---|
| 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.