Llama 3 8B Instruct vs Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct
Llama 3 8B Instruct (2024) and Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct (2024) are compact production models from AI at Meta and Microsoft Research. Llama 3 8B Instruct ships a 8k-token context window, while Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct ships a 128k-token context window. On pricing, Llama 3 8B Instruct costs $0.02/1M input tokens versus $0.90/1M 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 3 8B Instruct is ~4400% cheaper at $0.02/1M; pay for Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct only for long-context analysis.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Llama 3 8B Instruct | Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | provider-routed production | provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Coding, Classification, and JSON / Tool use | Long context |
| Context window | 8k | 128k |
| Cheapest output | $0.05/1M tokens | $0.90/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 17 tracked | 2 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- 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.
- Local decision data tags Llama 3 8B Instruct for Coding, Classification, and JSON / Tool use.
- Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Local decision data tags Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct for Long context.
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 3.5 Mini Instruct
$945
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Fireworks AI
Estimated monthly gap: $917. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on Fireworks AI and NVIDIA NIM; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct is $0.85/1M 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 Fireworks AI and NVIDIA NIM; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Llama 3 8B Instruct is $0.85/1M 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 | 2024-08-20 |
| Context window | 8k | 128k |
| 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 3.5 Mini Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.02/1M tokens | $0.90/1M tokens |
| Output price | $0.05/1M tokens | $0.90/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Llama 3 8B Instruct | Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| 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
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.