Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
$0.05 per 1M input tokens and $0.08 per 1M output tokens · 131K context · tools, JSON, open weights.
Prices checked Oct 21, 2026 · tracked by LLM Cost Index since Oct 21, 2026
What Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs per month
Estimated monthly bill for typical workloads, using the cached-input price for repeated context. Try your own numbers in the cost calculator.
| Workload | Per month |
|---|---|
| Customer chatbot 1,000 conversations a day, 8 turns each | $19.32 |
| Document Q&A (RAG) 500 questions a day over retrieved documents | $4.88 |
| Coding / tool-using agent 200 tasks a day, long tool-heavy contexts | $13.17 |
| Content generation 30 long articles a day | $0.315 |
| Classification / extraction 100,000 short items a day | $48.60 |
Price history
We started tracking Llama 3.1 8B Instruct on Oct 21, 2026; the chart appears as soon as there is a second data point. See all recent price changes.
Where to run Llama 3.1 8B Instruct: 5 providers
DeepInfra is the cheapest at $0.02 input / $0.04 output per 1M tokens. Uptime is the average over the last 30 days as reported by OpenRouter; see provider reliability.
| Provider | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Context | Uptime | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeepInfra | $0.02 | $0.04 | 131K | 99.9% | fp8 |
| Novita | $0.02 | $0.05 | 16K | 99% | fp8 |
| Groq | $0.05 | $0.08 | 131K | 100% | — |
| Cloudflare | $0.152 | $0.287 | 32K | 99.9% | fp8 |
| CoreWeave | $0.22 | $0.22 | 131K | 100% | bf16 |
Cheaper alternatives to Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Models with the same tool calling, structured output for at least 20% less (3:1 input/output mix), most capable first.
| Model | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Context | Capabilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ling 3.0 Flash inclusionAI | $0.021 | $0.063 | 262K | toolsreasoningJSONopen weights |
| gpt-oss-20b OpenAI | $0.018 | $0.09 | 131K | toolsreasoningJSONopen weights |
| Mistral Nemo Mistral AI | $0.029 | $0.03 | 131K | toolsJSONopen weights |
How to pay less for Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
For a customer chatbot (1,000 conversations a day, 8 turns each) that costs $24.72 a month at list price without caching:
| Option | Per month | You save |
|---|---|---|
| Move to Ling 3.0 Flash (similar capabilities) | $9.22 | $15.50 (63%) |
| Route to DeepInfra | $10.56 | $14.16 (57%) |
| Use prompt caching (60% of input cached) | $19.32 | $5.40 (22%) |
Other workloads: cut-your-bill tool for Llama 3.1 8B Instruct.
Specifications
| Model ID | meta-llama/llama-3.1-8b-instruct |
| Input | text |
| Output | text |
| Tool calling | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes |
| Reasoning mode | No |
| Open weights | Yes — meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2023-12-31 |
| Released | Jul 23, 2024 |
FAQ
- How much does Llama 3.1 8B Instruct cost?
- $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; cached input costs $0.025 per million. Prices as of Oct 21, 2026.
- What is the context window of Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?
- 131K tokens, with up to 118K output tokens per response.
- Does Llama 3.1 8B Instruct support images, tools and structured output?
- Images as input: no. Tool calling: yes. Structured (JSON) output: yes. Reasoning mode: no.
- What are cheaper alternatives to Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?
- Models with the same key capabilities for at least 20% less include Ling 3.0 Flash ($0.021 / $0.063), gpt-oss-20b ($0.018 / $0.09), Mistral Nemo ($0.029 / $0.03).
More from Meta Llama: all Meta Llama models · how we collect prices