Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads Llama 3.1 8B Instruct on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 26.3 to 6.9, and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs 37.5x less per output token ($0.08 vs $3.00 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 17 benchmarks have a result for both.
Gemini 3 Flash Preview or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct: which to pick
Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview has a coding score, 43.7 on the Vibe Coding Index; Llama 3.1 8B Instruct has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Llama 3.1 8B Instruct for output tokens 37.5x cheaper ($0.08 vs $3.00 per million).
- Shared results
- 17
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview only
- 52
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct only
- 33
- Like-for-like categories
- 7 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 26.3 against 6.9.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview has a GPQA Diamond result, 87.9%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview has a AIME result, 95.6%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview has a MMLU Pro result, 88.6%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview has a Design Arena: websites result, 1196.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview takes 1.05M tokens against 131K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Gemini 3 Flash Preview $0.0020, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct $0.0001 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview has the number, $0.37.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview 43.7 from 2 benchmarks, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Math, 93.1 points apart on average over 3 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- OTIS Mock AIME: Gemini 3 Flash Preview 95.6% against Llama 3.1 8B Instruct 1.7%, 93.9 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview $3.00 against Llama 3.1 8B Instruct $0.08 per million output tokens, 37.5x apart.
- Context window
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview takes 1.05M tokens, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct 131K.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Bars | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 3 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 2 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 3 | 0 | ||
| Math | 3 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 1 | 0 | ||
| General | 4 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 17 | 0 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index30
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 75.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 5.4 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 85.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 75.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 20.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 6.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 53.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 90.8% | 11.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 38.6% | 0.8% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Terminal-Bench | 64.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| GSO-Bench | 9.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| WeirdML | 61.6% | 1.7% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| ALE-Bench | 1367.2 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1195 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1195 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 22 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 26.3 | 6.9 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 116.5 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1110 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1063 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1090 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1050 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 1161 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1036 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 42.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 11.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 18.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 26.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 80.4% | 16.4% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| BALROG | 48.1% | 15.1% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| DeepResearch Bench | 49.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $3,635 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 25 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 87.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 87.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 89.8% | 25.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 36.6% | 5.3% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 89.4% | 27.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| ARC-AGI | 84.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 33.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| SimpleBench | 61.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Chess puzzles | 39.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 26.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| VPCT | 72.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1175 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1144 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1196 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 95.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 93.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| AA Math Index | 97.0 | 4.3 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 97.0% | 4.3% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 95.6% | 1.7% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 51.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 17.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| ProofBench | 15.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MATH level 5 | Not measured | 22.9% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| GSM8K | Not measured | 82.4% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1179 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1180 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 88.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 86.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 55.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 66.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 73.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 95.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 55.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 89.0% | 47.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| SimpleQA Verified | 66.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MMLU | Not measured | 56.1% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| GeoBench | 88.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1193 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1182 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1206 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1166 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1196 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1166 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1184 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1189 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 51.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 69.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 52.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| IFBench | 78.0% | 28.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 78.0% | 18.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| DTBench | 89.1% | 50.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| LMCA | 43.1% | 5.4% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| PIQA | Not measured | 81.2% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1187 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1159 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1154 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1218 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1148 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1151 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1144 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1061 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1053 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1178 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1169 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1158 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1172 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1181 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1162 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1145 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 22 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | Google Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Meta Llama | |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | December 17, 2025 | July 23, 2024 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 131K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.50 | $0.05 |
| Output $/Mtok | $3.00 | $0.08 |
| Coding index | 43.7 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.37 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemini 3 Flash Preview better than Llama 3.1 8B Instruct for coding?
Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview has a coding score, 43.7 on the Vibe Coding Index; Llama 3.1 8B Instruct has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Llama 3.1 8B Instruct for output tokens 37.5x cheaper ($0.08 vs $3.00 per million).
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Flash Preview or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs $0.50 per million input tokens and $3.00 per million output tokens; Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs $0.05 and $0.08. Cost per solved task is known for Gemini 3 Flash Preview only.
Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 3 Flash Preview or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview, with 1.05M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks is the Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct comparison based on?
17 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Gemini 3 Flash Preview's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.