Claude Opus 4.6 vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

At a Glance

Compare
Intelligence, Cost, and Efficiency
IntelligenceHigher is better · MM Intelligence v2.5#12 of 4676.2 score · 3/3 sources · completeUnrankedNot in the 46-model eligible cohort
CostLower is better · Published-token output estimate#33 of 44$0.241 per LiveBench caseUnrankedNot in the 44-model eligible cohort
EfficiencyHigher is better · MM Efficiency v1.5#19 of 3853.2 score · 3/3 sources · completeUnrankedNot in the 38-model eligible cohort
Pricing and Limits
Input priceFrom · USD / 1M tokens$5.00Anthropic · Sep 3, 2026$0.050Openrouter · Sep 23, 2026
Output priceFrom · USD / 1M tokens$25.00Anthropic · Sep 3, 2026$0.080Openrouter · Sep 23, 2026
Context windowMaximum documented tokens1,000K131K
Model facts checkedSep 3, 2026View model evidence →Aug 28, 2026View model evidence →

Token prices are the lowest available sourced USD rates; input and output may use different providers. Cost ranking estimates output spend on LiveBench, not a full request bill. Ranking methodology →

Available Benchmarks

All benchmark results →
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.6Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct
LMArena Text Arenatext-2026-09-13-d25aabda0010 · arena_rating · leader1,497.54100% of row best · rating · claude-opus-4-6; 95% CI [1494.14263199, 1500.94441396]; votes 75878; rank 51,186.4879% of row best · rating · llama-3.1-8b-instruct; 95% CI [1182.38141125, 1190.58254982]; votes 49605; rank 313
ToneBench2026-09-11-10-task-4ef099199c9c · overall_score · unverified84.21100% of row best · points · Claude Opus 4.6 · 13,556 output tokens / case47.9257% of row best · points · Llama 3.1 8B · 1,165 output tokens / case
Overall ResultCounted from the protocol-matched rows above1 benchmark winNo overall winner0 benchmark winsNo overall winner

Third-party benchmark Only like-for-like primary-publisher results are shown; raw scores, relative scores, configuration, and token spend remain visible.

Side-by-Side Facts

FieldClaude Opus 4.6Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct
DeveloperAnthropicMeta
FamilyClaude 4Llama 3 1 8b Instruct
ModelClaude Opus 4.6Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct
VersionClaude Opus 4.6Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct
Lifecycleactiveactive
Released2026-02-052024-07-23
Knowledge cutoff2025-05-01Unknown
Input modalitiesText, ImageText
Output modalitiesTextText
Context window1,000K131K
Total parametersUnknown8B
Active parametersUnknownUnknown
LicenseUnknownllama3.1
Open weightsNoYes
API availableYesYes
Self-hostableNoYes
Provider accessAnthropic (Standard)Hugging Face (Standard), Openrouter (Standard)
Capabilitieschat, generation, reasoning, structured_outputs, toolschat, generation, tools

Claude Opus 4.6 Capabilities

chatgenerationreasoningstructured outputstools
Serving providers1
Canonical IDanthropic/claude-opus-4-6

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct Capabilities

chatgenerationtools
Serving providers2
Canonical IDmeta-llama/Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

Primary Evidence

Sources and Freshness

Questions

Claude Opus 4.6 vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct FAQs

Is Claude Opus 4.6 or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct better for coding?+

This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both Claude Opus 4.6 and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.

Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.6 or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?+

Claude Opus 4.6 is $5.00 and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is $0.050 per million tokens, so Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is cheaper on this metric. Claude Opus 4.6 is $25.00 and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is $0.080 per million tokens, so Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is cheaper on this metric.

Which has a larger context window, Claude Opus 4.6 or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?+

Claude Opus 4.6 has the larger sourced context window. Claude Opus 4.6 supports 1,000K and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct supports 131K.

Which performs better in benchmarks, Claude Opus 4.6 or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?+

There is no overall benchmark winner: At least two independently verified, protocol-matched benchmarks are required for an overall winner.

Can Claude Opus 4.6 or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct be self-hosted?+

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is the only model in this pair currently marked as self-hostable. Claude Opus 4.6 is not marked open weight; Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is open weight.

Can Claude Opus 4.6 and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct understand images?+

Claude Opus 4.6 is documented with image input; Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is not documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.

Which can generate longer answers, Claude Opus 4.6 or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?+

Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. Claude Opus 4.6 is 128K and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is —.

Do Claude Opus 4.6 and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct support reasoning and tool use?+

Claude Opus 4.6: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Llama 3.1 8B Instruct: tool calling. Feature support does not establish relative quality.

Which is available from more inference providers, Claude Opus 4.6 or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?+

Claude Opus 4.6 has 1 sourced provider route; Llama 3.1 8B Instruct has 2, so Llama 3.1 8B Instruct has broader tracked availability.

Which offers better value, Claude Opus 4.6 or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?+

There is no universal value winner. Compare the input and output prices above with the matched benchmark result for your workload: cheaper tokens can be offset by different quality, token usage, latency, or provider availability.

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