Llama 3.1 8B vs Qwen 3 235B MoE: Pricing, Benchmarks & Verdict (2026)

Pricing verified Apr 8, 2026

⚡ Quick Answer

Compare Llama 3.1 8B and Qwen 3 235B MoE across pricing, benchmarks, and capabilities.

Updated: April 8, 2026 · ✓ Pricing verified

Side-by-Side Comparison

FeatureLlama 3.1 8BQwen 3 235B MoE
ProviderMetaAlibaba
Input Price / 1M tokens$0.060$0.500
Output Price / 1M tokens$0.060$1.50
Context Window
128K
128K
Max Output Tokens
4,096
4,096
Arena ELO
1,120
1,310
Coding ELON/A1,290
TTFT (ms)
150
150
Tokens/sec
100
100
MultimodalNoNo
JSON ModeYesYes
Function CallingYesYes
VisionNoNo
When to Use Llama 3.1 8B

Llama 3.1 8B excels at cost-effective, fast-inference tasks.

Strengths:

  • Very cheap
  • Super fast
  • Good for lightweight tasks

Best for:

cost-effectivefast-inference
When to Use Qwen 3 235B MoE

Qwen 3 235B MoE excels at general-purpose, coding, reasoning tasks.

Strengths:

  • Latest Alibaba model
  • Mixture of experts
  • Competitive pricing

Best for:

general-purposecodingreasoning

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