Llama 3 8B Instruct vs Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
Llama 3 8B Instruct (2024) and Qwen3.5-35B-A3B (2026) are frontier reasoning models from AI at Meta and Alibaba. Llama 3 8B Instruct ships a 8k-token context window, while Qwen3.5-35B-A3B ships a 262k-token context window. On MMLU PRO, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B leads by 44.8 pts. On pricing, Llama 3 8B Instruct costs $0.02/1M input tokens versus $0.14/1M 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 ~595% cheaper at $0.02/1M; pay for Qwen3.5-35B-A3B only for reasoning depth.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Llama 3 8B Instruct | Qwen3.5-35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | provider-routed production | reasoning-heavy apps, tool-calling agents, and provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Coding, Classification, and JSON / Tool use | Coding, RAG, and Agents |
| Context window | 8k | 262k |
| Cheapest output | $0.05/1M tokens | $1/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 17 tracked | 2 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 2 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.
- Qwen3.5-35B-A3B holds a shared-benchmark lead on MMLU PRO, ahead by 44.8 points.
- Qwen3.5-35B-A3B has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Qwen3.5-35B-A3B uniquely exposes Reasoning and JSON / Tool use in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Qwen3.5-35B-A3B for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
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
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
$361
Cheapest tracked route/tier: OpenRouter
Estimated monthly gap: $333. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter and Novita AI; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is $0.95/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Qwen3.5-35B-A3B adds Reasoning and JSON / Tool use in local capability data.
- Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter and Novita AI; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Llama 3 8B Instruct is $0.95/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Check replacement coverage for Reasoning and JSON / Tool use before moving production traffic.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2024-04-18 | 2026-02-24 |
| Context window | 8k | 262k |
| Parameters | 8B | 35B |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Mixture of Experts |
| License | Llama 3 Community | Apache 2.0OSI-approved |
| Openness | Open weights | Open source |
| Weights | Available | Available |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: conditional | Commercial use: permitted |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2023-03 | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Llama 3 8B Instruct | Qwen3.5-35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.02/1M tokens | $0.14/1M tokens |
| Output price | $0.05/1M tokens | $1/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Llama 3 8B Instruct | Qwen3.5-35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | No |
| Multimodal | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | Yes |
| JSON / Tool use | No | Yes |
| 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 | Qwen3.5-35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU PRO | 40.5 | 85.3 |
| Google-Proof Q&A | 44.8 | 84.5 |
Continue comparing
- Llama 3 8B Instruct vs Phi-4 Mini Flash Reasoning
- Qwen3.5-35B-A3B vs Qwen3.6-27B
- DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
- DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Llama 3 8B Instruct
- Llama 3 8B Instruct vs Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
- Llama 3 8B Instruct vs Phi-3 Mini 4k
- Claude Opus 4.6 vs Llama 3 8B Instruct
- Llama 3 8B Instruct vs Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
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Last reviewed: 2026-07-11. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.