Qwen 3.5 397 B A17 B vs Llama Guard 4 12 B: cost comparison
Prices updated 2026-11-05 · computed from live provider data
Short answer: Llama Guard 4 12 B is cheaper on a
3:1 input/output blend — $0.180 per million tokens versus
$0.387, a 53% difference.
Qwen 3.5 397 B A17 B offers the larger context window at 258,048 tokens, against 163,840 for Llama Guard 4 12 B.
Head to head
| Qwen 3.5 397 B A17 B | Llama Guard 4 12 B | |
|---|---|---|
| Input, per 1M tokens | $0.172 | $0.180 |
| Output, per 1M tokens | $1.03 | $0.180 |
| Blended 3:1, per 1M | $0.387 | $0.180 |
| Context window | 258,048 | 163,840 |
| Vendor | empiriolabs | meta-llama |
Monthly cost at real volumes
| Workload (input / output) | Qwen 3.5 397 B A17 B | Llama Guard 4 12 B |
|---|---|---|
| 1M in / 250K out | $0.430 | $0.225 |
| 10M in / 2.5M out | $4.30 | $2.25 |
| 100M in / 25M out | $43.00 | $22.50 |
Which should you pick?
Pick Qwen 3.5 397 B A17 B when you need the longer context window (258,048 vs 163,840 tokens). Pick Llama Guard 4 12 B when price per token dominates your workload — high-volume classification, extraction, or batch summarisation.