Llama Guard 3 1B vs Llama 3 70B Instruct
Llama Guard 3 1B (2024) and Llama 3 70B Instruct (2024) are compact production models from AI at Meta. Llama Guard 3 1B ships a 128k-token context window, while Llama 3 70B Instruct ships a 8k-token context window. On pricing, Llama Guard 3 1B costs $0.10/1M input tokens versus $0.40/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.
Llama Guard 3 1B is ~300% cheaper at $0.10/1M; pay for Llama 3 70B Instruct only for provider fit.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Llama Guard 3 1B | Llama 3 70B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | general production evaluation | provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Long context and Classification | Coding, Classification, and JSON / Tool use |
| Context window | 128k | 8k |
| Cheapest output | $0.10/1M tokens | $0.40/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 1 tracked | 18 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Llama Guard 3 1B has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Llama Guard 3 1B has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.10/1M tokens.
- Local decision data tags Llama Guard 3 1B for Long context and Classification.
- Llama 3 70B Instruct has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Llama 3 70B Instruct uniquely exposes Structured outputs in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Llama 3 70B Instruct for Coding, Classification, and JSON / Tool use.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.
Llama Guard 3 1B
$105
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Fireworks AI
Llama 3 70B Instruct
$420
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Hyperbolic AI Inference
Estimated monthly gap: $315. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on Fireworks AI; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Llama 3 70B Instruct is $0.30/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Llama 3 70B Instruct adds Structured outputs in local capability data.
- Provider overlap exists on Fireworks AI; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Llama Guard 3 1B is $0.30/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Check replacement coverage for Structured outputs before moving production traffic.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2024-09-25 | 2024-04-18 |
| Context window | 128k | 8k |
| Parameters | 1B | 70B |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Decoder Only |
| License | Llama 2 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 | 2023-12 | 2023-12 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Llama Guard 3 1B | Llama 3 70B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.10/1M tokens | $0.40/1M tokens |
| Output price | $0.10/1M tokens | $0.40/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Llama Guard 3 1B | Llama 3 70B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | No |
| Multimodal | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| JSON / Tool use | No | No |
| Structured outputs | No | 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.