Compare / Gemma 4 31B vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Gemma 4 31B vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 18 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

Gemma 4 31B
Google · profile
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Meta · profile
Results compared
18
Shared sources
3

Gemma 4 31B or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct? The short answer

  • Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is cheaper: $0.058 against $0.21 per million tokens, 3.6 times less.
  • Gemma 4 31B scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 14.7 against 6.9.
  • On our business benchmarks, Gemma 4 31B ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.

At a glance

Gemma 4 31BLlama 3.1 8B Instruct
Price per million tokens$0.14 in · $0.40 out$0.050 in · $0.080 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.21$0.058
Cheapest host, blended$0.15 (DeepInfra, FP4)$0.025 (DeepInfra, FP8)
Intelligence Index14.76.9
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second44–
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 31BLlama 3.1 8B Instruct
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 96 of 161 154 of 161
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 89 of 195 173 of 195
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 72 of 187 178 of 187
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 89 of 153 not measured

Every shared result

BenchmarkMetricGemma 4 31BLlama 3.1 8B Instruct
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedBusiness, management and financeArena rating 1,4491,210
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedCreative writingArena rating 1,4191,177
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedExpert promptsArena rating 1,4991,198
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedInstruction followingArena rating 1,4531,191
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedOverallArena rating 1,4531,211
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedWriting, literature and languageArena rating 1,4351,182
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score 43.45.40
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score 14.76.90
Artificial AnalysisreportedGPQA Diamond% of questions 85.7%25.9%
Artificial AnalysisreportedHumanity's Last Exam% of questions 23.6%5.3%
Artificial AnalysisreportedIFBench% of instructions 75.6%28.6%
Artificial AnalysisreportedLong-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions 69.7%18.0%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks 43.4%1.5%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench Hard% of tasks 36.4%0.8%
Artificial AnalysisreportedΤ²-bench telecom% of tasks 65.5%16.4%
UGI LeaderboardreportedRequested-length error% off the requested word count 5.0%20.0%
UGI LeaderboardreportedStyle adherencescore from 0 to 1 0.360.34
UGI LeaderboardreportedWriting scorescore out of 100 43.124.8

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 31B better than Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, Gemma 4 31B ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 4 31B or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs $0.058 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $0.21 for Gemma 4 31B.

Run Gemma 4 31B 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.