Compare / Gemma 4 26B A4B vs Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

Gemma 4 26B A4B vs Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 15 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

Gemma 4 26B A4B
Google · profile
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
Meta · profile
Results compared
15
Shared sources
3

Gemma 4 26B A4B or Llama 3.1 70B Instruct? The short answer

  • Gemma 4 26B A4B is cheaper: $0.15 against $0.40 per million tokens, 2.7 times less.
  • Gemma 4 26B A4B scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 16.7 against 6.6.
  • On our business benchmarks, Gemma 4 26B A4B ranks higher for reasoning and knowledge and writing.

At a glance

Gemma 4 26B A4BLlama 3.1 70B Instruct
Price per million tokens$0.10 in · $0.30 out$0.40 in · $0.40 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.15$0.40
Cheapest host, blended$0.086 (Darkbloom)$0.40 (DeepInfra, FP8)
Intelligence Index16.76.6
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second99–
Context window262,144 tokens131,072 tokens
WeightsOpenOpen
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 caseGemma 4 26B A4BLlama 3.1 70B Instruct
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 90 of 161 not measured
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 100 of 195 179 of 195
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 81 of 187 153 of 187
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 42 of 153 not measured

Every shared result

BenchmarkMetricGemma 4 26B A4BLlama 3.1 70B Instruct
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedBusiness, management and financeArena rating 1,4441,287
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedCreative writingArena rating 1,3991,257
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedExpert promptsArena rating 1,4751,275
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedInstruction followingArena rating 1,4371,273
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedOverallArena rating 1,4381,293
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedWriting, literature and languageArena rating 1,4061,264
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score 16.76.60
Artificial AnalysisreportedGPQA Diamond% of questions 79.2%40.9%
Artificial AnalysisreportedHumanity's Last Exam% of questions 19.3%4.5%
Artificial AnalysisreportedIFBench% of instructions 72.4%34.4%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench Hard% of tasks 25.0%3.0%
Artificial AnalysisreportedΤ²-bench telecom% of tasks 43.6%15.2%
UGI LeaderboardreportedRequested-length error% off the requested word count 8.0%15.0%
UGI LeaderboardreportedStyle adherencescore from 0 to 1 0.350.38
UGI LeaderboardreportedWriting scorescore out of 100 43.832.8

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 Gemma 4 26B A4B better than Llama 3.1 70B Instruct?

It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, Gemma 4 26B A4B ranks higher for reasoning and knowledge and writing.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 4 26B A4B or Llama 3.1 70B Instruct?

Gemma 4 26B A4B costs $0.15 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $0.40 for Llama 3.1 70B Instruct.

Run Gemma 4 26B A4B and Llama 3.1 70B Instruct on your own prompt

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