Llama 3 8B Instruct vs Qwen3-235B-A22B
Llama 3 8B Instruct (2024) and Qwen3-235B-A22B (2025) are compact production models from AI at Meta and Alibaba. Llama 3 8B Instruct ships a 8k-token context window, while Qwen3-235B-A22B ships a 128k-token context window. On MMLU PRO, Qwen3-235B-A22B leads by 42.3 pts. On pricing, Llama 3 8B Instruct costs $0.02/1M input tokens versus $0.09/1M 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 ~350% cheaper at $0.02/1M; pay for Qwen3-235B-A22B only for long-context analysis.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Llama 3 8B Instruct | Qwen3-235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | provider-routed production | provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Coding, Classification, and JSON / Tool use | Coding, RAG, and Long context |
| Context window | 8k | 128k |
| Cheapest output | $0.05/1M tokens | $0.58/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 17 tracked | 5 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 3 shared | MMLU PRO leader |
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.
- Local decision data tags Llama 3 8B Instruct for Coding, Classification, and JSON / Tool use.
- Qwen3-235B-A22B holds a shared-benchmark lead on MMLU PRO, ahead by 42.3 points.
- Qwen3-235B-A22B has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Local decision data tags Qwen3-235B-A22B for Coding, RAG, and 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
Qwen3-235B-A22B
$217
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Novita AI
Estimated monthly gap: $189. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on Fireworks AI, AWS Bedrock, and OpenRouter; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Qwen3-235B-A22B is $0.53/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Provider overlap exists on AWS Bedrock, Fireworks AI, and OpenRouter; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Llama 3 8B Instruct is $0.53/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2024-04-18 | 2025-04-29 |
| Context window | 8k | 128k |
| Parameters | 8B | 235B |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Decoder Only |
| License | Llama 3 Community | Apache 2.0OSI-approved |
| Openness | Open weights | Open source |
| Weights | Available | Unknown |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: conditional | Commercial use: permitted |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2023-03 | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Llama 3 8B Instruct | Qwen3-235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.02/1M tokens | $0.09/1M tokens |
| Output price | $0.05/1M tokens | $0.58/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Llama 3 8B Instruct | Qwen3-235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | No |
| Multimodal | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| JSON / Tool use | No | No |
| Structured outputs | Yes | Yes |
| Code execution | No | No |
| IDE integration | No | No |
| Computer use | No | No |
| Parallel agents | No | No |
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Llama 3 8B Instruct | Qwen3-235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU PRO | 40.5 | 82.8 |
| Google-Proof Q&A | 44.8 | 86.1 |
| HumanEval | 68.2 | 92.7 |
Continue comparing
Popular comparisons for Llama 3 8B Instruct
Popular comparisons for Qwen3-235B-A22B
Last reviewed: 2026-07-11. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.