Ling 3.1 Flash vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Ling 3.1 Flash leads Llama 3.1 8B Instruct on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 41.1 to 6.9, and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs 2.8x less per output token ($0.08 vs $0.225 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 3 benchmarks have a result for both.
Ling 3.1 Flash 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 Ling 3.1 Flash for a larger context window (262K against 131K tokens).
- Shared results
- 3
- Ling 3.1 Flash only
- 1
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct only
- 48
- Like-for-like categories
- 3 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
Ling 3.1 Flash
Ling 3.1 Flash leads, 41.1 against 6.9.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Ling 3.1 Flash
Ling 3.1 Flash takes 262K tokens against 131K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Ling 3.1 Flash $0.0002, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct $0.0001 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Ling 3.1 Flash not benchmarked, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- General, 65.0 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- Long context reasoning (AA-LCR): Ling 3.1 Flash 83.0% against Llama 3.1 8B Instruct 18.0%, 65.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Ling 3.1 Flash $0.225 against Llama 3.1 8B Instruct $0.08 per million output tokens, 2.8x apart.
- Context window
- Ling 3.1 Flash takes 262K 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 | Ling 3.1 Flash | Bars | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 1 | 0 | ||
| General | 1 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 3 | 0 |
CodingDirectional onlySix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ling 3.1 Flash | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 5.4 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 11.6% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| SciCode | 54.1% | Not measured | Only Ling 3.1 Flash measured |
| 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 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 32 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Ling 3.1 Flash | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 41.1 | 6.9 | Ling 3.1 Flash |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 116.5 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index3 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ling 3.1 Flash | 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 index10
| Benchmark | Ling 3.1 Flash | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 25.9% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 39.4% | 5.3% | Ling 3.1 Flash |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 27.0% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct 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 16 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ling 3.1 Flash | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | Not measured | 4.3 | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 4.3% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| 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 | 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 6 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ling 3.1 Flash | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 47.6% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| MMLU | Not measured | 56.1% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct 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 12 boards here | |||
Web designNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ling 3.1 Flash | 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 index10
| Benchmark | Ling 3.1 Flash | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | Not measured | 28.6% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 83.0% | 18.0% | Ling 3.1 Flash |
| DTBench | Not measured | 50.9% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 5.4% | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| 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 25 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ling 3.1 Flash | 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 | inclusionAI Ling 3.1 Flash | Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | inclusionAI | Meta Llama |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | October 2, 2026 | July 23, 2024 |
| Context window | 262K | 131K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.075 | $0.05 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.225 | $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 Ling 3.1 Flash 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 Ling 3.1 Flash for a larger context window (262K against 131K tokens).
Which is cheaper, Ling 3.1 Flash or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?
Ling 3.1 Flash costs $0.075 per million input tokens and $0.225 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, Ling 3.1 Flash or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?
Ling 3.1 Flash, with 262K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks is the Ling 3.1 Flash vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct comparison based on?
3 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Ling 3.1 Flash'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.