Llama 3 8B Instruct vs Phi-3 Mini 4k
Llama 3 8B Instruct (2024) and Phi-3 Mini 4k (2024) are compact production models from AI at Meta and Microsoft Research. Llama 3 8B Instruct ships a 8k-token context window, while Phi-3 Mini 4k ships a 4k-token context window. On MMLU PRO, Phi-3 Mini 4k leads by 5.2 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 8B Instruct is ~150% cheaper at $0.02/1M; pay for Phi-3 Mini 4k only for provider fit.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Llama 3 8B Instruct | Phi-3 Mini 4k |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | provider-routed production | provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Coding, Classification, and JSON / Tool use | Coding and Classification |
| Context window | 8k | 4k |
| Cheapest output | $0.05/1M tokens | $0.25/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 17 tracked | 4 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 6 shared | MMLU PRO leader |
Decision tradeoffs
- Llama 3 8B Instruct holds a shared-benchmark lead on Google-Proof Q&A, ahead by 3.9 points.
- Llama 3 8B Instruct has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Llama 3 8B Instruct has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.05/1M tokens.
- Llama 3 8B Instruct has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Llama 3 8B Instruct uniquely exposes Structured outputs in local model data.
- Phi-3 Mini 4k holds a shared-benchmark lead on MMLU PRO, ahead by 5.2 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 8B Instruct
$28.50
Cheapest tracked route/tier: DeepInfra
Phi-3 Mini 4k
$103
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Replicate API
Estimated monthly gap: $74.00. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on Microsoft Foundry, NVIDIA NIM, and Baseten API; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Phi-3 Mini 4k is $0.20/1M 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 Baseten API, NVIDIA NIM, and Microsoft Foundry; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Llama 3 8B Instruct is $0.20/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Llama 3 8B Instruct adds Structured outputs in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2024-04-18 | 2024-04-23 |
| Context window | 8k | 4k |
| Parameters | 8B | 3.8B |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Decoder Only |
| License | Llama 3 Community | MITOSI-approved |
| Openness | Open weights | Open source |
| Weights | Available | Unknown |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: conditional | Commercial use: permitted |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2023-03 | 2023-10 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Llama 3 8B Instruct | Phi-3 Mini 4k |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.02/1M tokens | $0.05/1M tokens |
| Output price | $0.05/1M tokens | $0.25/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Llama 3 8B 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 8B Instruct | Phi-3 Mini 4k |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU PRO | 40.5 | 45.7 |
| Google-Proof Q&A | 44.8 | 40.9 |
| HumanEval | 68.2 | 59.8 |
| Instruction-Following Evaluation | 59.5 | 45.0 |
| Massive Multitask Language Understanding | 76.9 | 68.2 |
| HellaSwag | 91.1 | 87.1 |
Continue comparing
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- Llama 3.2 1B Instruct vs Phi-3 Mini 4k
- Mistral Large 2 vs Phi-3 Mini 4k
- DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Llama 3 8B Instruct
- Llama 3 8B Instruct vs Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
- Claude Opus 4.6 vs Llama 3 8B Instruct
- Llama 3 8B Instruct vs Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
- DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Llama 3 8B Instruct
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Last reviewed: 2026-07-11. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.