Llama 3.1.8 B Instruct vs Llama 3.2.1 B Instruct: cost comparison
Prices updated 2026-10-28 · computed from live provider data
Short answer: Llama 3.1.8 B Instruct is cheaper on a
3:1 input/output blend — $0.029 per million tokens versus
$0.070, a 59% difference.
Llama 3.1.8 B Instruct offers the larger context window at 131,072 tokens, against 60,000 for Llama 3.2.1 B Instruct.
Head to head
| Llama 3.1.8 B Instruct | Llama 3.2.1 B Instruct | |
|---|---|---|
| Input, per 1M tokens | $0.025 | $0.027 |
| Output, per 1M tokens | $0.040 | $0.201 |
| Blended 3:1, per 1M | $0.029 | $0.070 |
| Context window | 131,072 | 60,000 |
| Vendor | lambda_ai | meta-llama |
Monthly cost at real volumes
| Workload (input / output) | Llama 3.1.8 B Instruct | Llama 3.2.1 B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| 1M in / 250K out | $0.035 | $0.077 |
| 10M in / 2.5M out | $0.350 | $0.772 |
| 100M in / 25M out | $3.50 | $7.72 |
Which should you pick?
Pick Llama 3.1.8 B Instruct when you need the longer context window (131,072 vs 60,000 tokens). Pick Llama 3.1.8 B Instruct when price per token dominates your workload — high-volume classification, extraction, or batch summarisation.