GPT-4o-mini vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct leads GPT-4o-mini on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 6.9 to 6.7, and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs 7.5x less per output token ($0.08 vs $0.60 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 15 benchmarks have a result for both.
GPT-4o-mini or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick GPT-4o-mini for work measured by AA Intelligence Index or Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 15
- GPT-4o-mini only
- 14
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct only
- 36
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 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
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct leads, 6.9 against 6.7.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only GPT-4o-mini has a GPQA Diamond result, 44.2%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only GPT-4o-mini has a AIME result, 11.5%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only GPT-4o-mini has a MMLU Pro result, 62.7%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct takes 131K tokens against 128K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
GPT-4o-mini $0.0004, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct $0.0001 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- GPT-4o-mini not benchmarked, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Knowledge, 21.4 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- MMLU: GPT-4o-mini 81.8% against Llama 3.1 8B Instruct 56.1%, 25.7 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- GPT-4o-mini $0.60 against Llama 3.1 8B Instruct $0.08 per million output tokens, 7.5x apart.
- Context window
- GPT-4o-mini takes 128K 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 | GPT-4o-mini | Bars | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 1 | 1 | ||
| Math | 3 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 2 | 0 | ||
| General | 4 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 13 | 2 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index20
| Benchmark | GPT-4o-mini | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Coding Index | 11.4 | 5.4 | GPT-4o-mini |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 26.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-4o-mini measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 23.4% | 11.6% | GPT-4o-mini |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 0.8% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 1.7% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct 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 |
| SciCode | 1.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-4o-mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 31 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
| Benchmark | GPT-4o-mini | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 6.7 | 6.9 | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 126.5 | 116.5 | GPT-4o-mini |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index3 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GPT-4o-mini | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 16.4% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| BALROG | Not measured | 15.1% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) | Not measured | 25.8% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 38 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
| Benchmark | GPT-4o-mini | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 44.2% | Not measured | Only GPT-4o-mini measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 56.6% | Not measured | Only GPT-4o-mini measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 42.6% | 25.9% | GPT-4o-mini |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 4.2% | 5.3% | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 27.0% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 0.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-4o-mini 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 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 28.8% | Not measured | Only GPT-4o-mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | GPT-4o-mini | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 11.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-4o-mini measured |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | 72.6% | Not measured | Only GPT-4o-mini measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 86.2% | Not measured | Only GPT-4o-mini measured |
| AA Math Index | 14.7 | 4.3 | GPT-4o-mini |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 14.7% | 4.3% | GPT-4o-mini |
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 1.7% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| MATH level 5 | Not measured | 22.9% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| GSM8K | 91.3% | 82.4% | GPT-4o-mini |
| 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 3 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | GPT-4o-mini | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 62.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-4o-mini measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 45.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-4o-mini measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 60.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-4o-mini measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 54.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-4o-mini measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 72.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-4o-mini measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 64.8% | 47.6% | GPT-4o-mini |
| MMLU | 81.8% | 56.1% | GPT-4o-mini |
| 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 7 boards here | |||
Web designNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GPT-4o-mini | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 9 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | GPT-4o-mini | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 31.0% | 28.6% | GPT-4o-mini |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 18.0% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| DTBench | 54.4% | 50.9% | GPT-4o-mini |
| LMCA | 10.4% | 5.4% | GPT-4o-mini |
| PIQA | 88.7% | 81.2% | GPT-4o-mini |
| 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 25 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GPT-4o-mini | 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 | OpenAI GPT-4o-mini | Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | OpenAI | Meta Llama |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | July 18, 2024 | July 23, 2024 |
| Context window | 128K | 131K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.15 | $0.05 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.60 | $0.08 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is GPT-4o-mini better than Llama 3.1 8B Instruct for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick GPT-4o-mini for work measured by AA Intelligence Index or Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, GPT-4o-mini or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?
GPT-4o-mini costs $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.60 per million output tokens; Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs $0.05 and $0.08. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, GPT-4o-mini or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct, with 131K tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks is the GPT-4o-mini vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct comparison based on?
15 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. GPT-4o-mini's coding index rests on 0 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.