LLM Reference

Llama 3.3 70B vs ShieldGemma 9B

Llama 3.3 70B (2025) and ShieldGemma 9B (2024) are compact production models from AI at Meta and Google DeepMind. Llama 3.3 70B 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. It focuses on practical selection signals rather than broad model-family marketing.

Llama 3.3 70B is safer overall; choose ShieldGemma 9B when provider fit matters.

Decision scorecard

Local evidence first
SignalLlama 3.3 70BShieldGemma 9B
Best formultimodal apps and tool-calling agentsgeneral production evaluation
Decision fitAgents, Vision, and ClassificationClassification
Context window8k8k
Cheapest output$0.90/1M tokens-
Provider routes1 tracked1 tracked
Shared benchmarks0 shared0 shared

Decision tradeoffs

Choose Llama 3.3 70B when...
  • Llama 3.3 70B uniquely exposes Vision, Multimodal, and JSON / Tool use in local model data.
  • Local decision data tags Llama 3.3 70B for Agents, Vision, and Classification.
Choose ShieldGemma 9B when...
  • 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.

Llama 3.3 70B

$945

Cheapest tracked route/tier: Fireworks 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

Llama 3.3 70B -> ShieldGemma 9B
  • No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Llama 3.3 70B and ShieldGemma 9B; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
  • Check replacement coverage for Vision, Multimodal, and JSON / Tool use before moving production traffic.
ShieldGemma 9B -> Llama 3.3 70B
  • No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for ShieldGemma 9B and Llama 3.3 70B; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
  • Llama 3.3 70B adds Vision, Multimodal, and JSON / Tool use in local capability data.

Specs

Specification
Released2025-12-092024-07-01
Context window8k8k
Parameters70B9B
ArchitectureDecoder OnlyDecoder Only
LicenseLlama 3 CommunityGemma
OpennessOpen weightsOpen weights
WeightsUnknownUnknown
CodeUnknownUnknown
Commercial useCommercial use: conditionalCommercial use: conditional
Knowledge cutoff2024-12-

Pricing and availability

Pricing attributeLlama 3.3 70BShieldGemma 9B
Input price$0.90/1M tokens-
Output price$0.90/1M tokens-
Providers

Capabilities

CapabilityLlama 3.3 70BShieldGemma 9B
VisionYesNo
MultimodalYesNo
ReasoningNoNo
JSON / Tool useYesNo
Structured outputsNoNo
Code executionNoNo
IDE integrationNoNo
Computer useNoNo
Parallel agentsNoNo

Benchmarks

No shared benchmark scores are currently available for this pair.

Continue comparing

Last reviewed: 2026-07-09. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.