Compare / Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Grok 4.5

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Grok 4.5

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.

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Meta · profile
Grok 4.5
xAI · profile
Results compared
15
Shared sources
3

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct or Grok 4.5? The short answer

  • Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is cheaper: $0.058 against $3.00 per million tokens, 52 times less.
  • Grok 4.5 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 38.8 against 6.9.
  • On our business benchmarks, Grok 4.5 ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.

At a glance

Llama 3.1 8B InstructGrok 4.5
Price per million tokens$0.050 in · $0.080 out$2.00 in · $6.00 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.058$3.00
Cheapest host, blended$0.025 (DeepInfra, FP8)$3.00 (xAI)
Intelligence Index6.938.8
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window131,072 tokens500,000 tokens
WeightsOpenClosed
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 caseLlama 3.1 8B InstructGrok 4.5
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 154 of 161 43 of 161
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects not measured 26 of 51
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 173 of 195 22 of 195
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 178 of 187 38 of 187
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers not measured 43 of 153

Every shared result

BenchmarkMetricLlama 3.1 8B InstructGrok 4.5
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedBusiness, management and financeArena rating 1,2101,465
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedCreative writingArena rating 1,1771,452
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedExpert promptsArena rating 1,1981,488
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedInstruction followingArena rating 1,1911,462
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedOverallArena rating 1,2111,465
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedWriting, literature and languageArena rating 1,1821,459
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score 5.4072.4
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score 6.9038.8
Artificial AnalysisreportedGPQA Diamond% of questions 25.9%93.1%
Artificial AnalysisreportedHumanity's Last Exam% of questions 5.3%42.7%
Artificial AnalysisreportedLong-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions 18.0%79.3%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks 1.5%81.6%
UGI LeaderboardreportedRequested-length error% off the requested word count 20.0%21.0%
UGI LeaderboardreportedStyle adherencescore from 0 to 1 0.340.32
UGI LeaderboardreportedWriting scorescore out of 100 24.860.0

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 Llama 3.1 8B Instruct better than Grok 4.5?

It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, Grok 4.5 ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.

Which is cheaper, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct or Grok 4.5?

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs $0.058 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $3.00 for Grok 4.5.

Run Llama 3.1 8B Instruct and Grok 4.5 on your own prompt

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