Llama 3.2 1B Instruct vs Phi-3 Mini 4k
Llama 3.2 1B Instruct (2024) and Phi-3 Mini 4k (2024) are compact production models from AI at Meta and Microsoft Research. Llama 3.2 1B Instruct ships a 128k-token context window, while Phi-3 Mini 4k ships a 4k-token context window. On MMLU PRO, Phi-3 Mini 4k leads by 25.7 pts. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.
Llama 3.2 1B Instruct is ~85% cheaper at $0.03/1M; pay for Phi-3 Mini 4k only for provider fit.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Llama 3.2 1B Instruct | Phi-3 Mini 4k |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | provider-routed production | provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Coding, RAG, and Long context | Coding and Classification |
| Context window | 128k | 4k |
| Cheapest output | $0.20/1M tokens | $0.25/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 7 tracked | 4 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 5 shared | MMLU PRO leader |
Decision tradeoffs
- Llama 3.2 1B Instruct has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Llama 3.2 1B Instruct has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.20/1M tokens.
- Llama 3.2 1B Instruct has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Llama 3.2 1B Instruct uniquely exposes Structured outputs in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Llama 3.2 1B Instruct for Coding, RAG, and Long context.
- Phi-3 Mini 4k holds a shared-benchmark lead on MMLU PRO, ahead by 25.7 points.
- Local decision data tags Phi-3 Mini 4k for Coding and Classification.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.
Llama 3.2 1B Instruct
$71.85
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Cloudflare Workers AI
Phi-3 Mini 4k
$103
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Replicate API
Estimated monthly gap: $30.65. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on NVIDIA NIM; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Phi-3 Mini 4k is $0.05/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Check replacement coverage for Structured outputs before moving production traffic.
- Provider overlap exists on NVIDIA NIM; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Llama 3.2 1B Instruct is $0.05/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Llama 3.2 1B Instruct adds Structured outputs in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2024-09-25 | 2024-04-23 |
| Context window | 128k | 4k |
| Parameters | 1.23B | 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 | 2023-12 | 2023-10 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Llama 3.2 1B Instruct | Phi-3 Mini 4k |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.03/1M tokens | $0.05/1M tokens |
| Output price | $0.20/1M tokens | $0.25/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Llama 3.2 1B Instruct | Phi-3 Mini 4k |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | No |
| Multimodal | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| JSON / Tool use | No | No |
| Structured outputs | Yes | No |
| Code execution | No | No |
| IDE integration | No | No |
| Computer use | No | No |
| Parallel agents | No | No |
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 1B Instruct | Phi-3 Mini 4k |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU PRO | 20.0 | 45.7 |
| Google-Proof Q&A | 25.6 | 40.9 |
| HumanEval | 28.1 | 59.8 |
| Massive Multitask Language Understanding | 49.3 | 68.2 |
| HellaSwag | 78.9 | 87.1 |
Continue comparing
- Llama 3.2 1B Instruct vs Qwen2-7B-Instruct
- DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Llama 3.2 1B Instruct
- Mistral Large 2 vs Phi-3 Mini 4k
- Llama 3 8B Instruct vs Phi-3 Mini 4k
- Llama 3.2 1B Instruct vs Llama 3 8B Instruct
- Llama 3 70B Instruct vs Phi-3 Mini 4k
- DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Llama 3.2 1B Instruct
- Llama 3.2 1B Instruct vs Qwen3.6-27B
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Last reviewed: 2026-07-09. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.