Compare / Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 21 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

Gemini 2.5 Flash
Google · profile
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Meta · profile
Results compared
21
Shared sources
3

Gemini 2.5 Flash or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct? The short answer

  • Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is cheaper: $0.058 against $0.85 per million tokens, 15 times less.
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 13.1 against 6.9.
  • On our business benchmarks, Gemini 2.5 Flash ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.

At a glance

Gemini 2.5 FlashLlama 3.1 8B Instruct
Price per million tokens$0.30 in · $2.50 out$0.050 in · $0.080 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.85$0.058
Cheapest host, blended$0.42 (Google AI Studio)$0.025 (DeepInfra, FP8)
Intelligence Index13.16.9
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window1,048,576 tokens131,072 tokens
WeightsClosedOpen
Developer based inthe USthe US

Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.

Which is better for what

Each model's rank among models available today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. The better rank is in green.

Use caseGemini 2.5 FlashLlama 3.1 8B Instruct
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 74 of 161 154 of 161
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 115 of 195 173 of 195
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 93 of 187 178 of 187
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 66 of 153 not measured

Every shared result

BenchmarkMetricGemini 2.5 FlashLlama 3.1 8B Instruct
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedBusiness, management and financeArena rating 1,3991,210
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedCreative writingArena rating 1,3941,177
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedExpert promptsArena rating 1,4241,198
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedInstruction followingArena rating 1,4001,191
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedOverallArena rating 1,4091,211
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedWriting, literature and languageArena rating 1,4021,182
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score 13.16.90
Artificial AnalysisreportedGPQA Diamond% of questions 79.0%25.9%
Artificial AnalysisreportedHumanity's Last Exam% of questions 12.1%5.3%
Artificial AnalysisreportedIFBench% of instructions 50.3%28.6%
Artificial AnalysisreportedLong-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions 65.3%18.0%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench Hard% of tasks 13.6%0.8%
Artificial AnalysisreportedΤ²-bench telecom% of tasks 31.6%16.4%
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4reportedIrrelevance detection% correct 93.7%42.7%
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4reportedMemory% correct 41.3%10.8%
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4reportedMulti-turn tasks% correct 36.2%11.1%
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4reportedOverall accuracy% correct 56.2%25.8%
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4reportedRelevance detection% correct 75.0%93.8%
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4reportedSingle-turn calls (curated)% correct 88.1%84.0%
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4reportedSingle-turn calls (user-contributed)% correct 78.2%70.8%
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4reportedWeb search% correct 62.0%3.0%

Bold green marks the better value on that metric. Where a source reports ranges that overlap, the difference may not be meaningful; see the benchmark page for ranges.

Quick answers

Is Gemini 2.5 Flash better than Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, Gemini 2.5 Flash ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs $0.058 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $0.85 for Gemini 2.5 Flash.

Run Gemini 2.5 Flash and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.