Llama 3.1 405B Instruct vs Qwen3-235B-A22B
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct (2024) and Qwen3-235B-A22B (2025) are compact production models from AI at Meta and Alibaba. Both ship a 128k-token context window. On pricing, Qwen3-235B-A22B costs $0.09/1M input tokens versus $2.40/1M 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. It focuses on practical selection signals rather than broad model-family marketing.
Qwen3-235B-A22B is ~2567% cheaper at $0.09/1M; pay for Llama 3.1 405B Instruct only for provider fit.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Llama 3.1 405B Instruct | Qwen3-235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | provider-routed production | provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | RAG, Long context, and Classification | Coding, RAG, and Long context |
| Context window | 128k | 128k |
| Cheapest output | $2.40/1M tokens | $0.58/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 11 tracked | 5 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Llama 3.1 405B Instruct has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Local decision data tags Llama 3.1 405B Instruct for RAG, Long context, and Classification.
- Qwen3-235B-A22B has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.58/1M tokens.
- 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 3.1 405B Instruct
$2,520
Cheapest tracked route/tier: AWS Bedrock
Qwen3-235B-A22B
$217
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Novita AI
Estimated monthly gap: $2,303. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on Fireworks AI and AWS Bedrock; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Qwen3-235B-A22B is $1.82/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Provider overlap exists on Fireworks AI and AWS Bedrock; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is $1.82/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2024-07-23 | 2025-04-29 |
| Context window | 128k | 128k |
| Parameters | 405B | 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 | 2023-12 | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Llama 3.1 405B Instruct | Qwen3-235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $2.40/1M tokens | $0.09/1M tokens |
| Output price | $2.40/1M tokens | $0.58/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Llama 3.1 405B 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
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.