Llama 3.1.8 B Instruct vs Particle 1: cost comparison
Prices updated 2026-10-31 · computed from live provider data
Short answer: Llama 3.1.8 B Instruct is cheaper on a
3:1 input/output blend — $0.058 per million tokens versus
$0.163, a 65% difference.
Particle 1 offers the larger context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 131,072 for Llama 3.1.8 B Instruct.
Head to head
| Llama 3.1.8 B Instruct | Particle 1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Input, per 1M tokens | $0.050 | $0.050 |
| Output, per 1M tokens | $0.080 | $0.500 |
| Blended 3:1, per 1M | $0.058 | $0.163 |
| Context window | 131,072 | 1,048,576 |
| Vendor | meta-llama | particle-ai |
Monthly cost at real volumes
| Workload (input / output) | Llama 3.1.8 B Instruct | Particle 1 |
|---|---|---|
| 1M in / 250K out | $0.070 | $0.175 |
| 10M in / 2.5M out | $0.700 | $1.75 |
| 100M in / 25M out | $7.00 | $17.50 |
Which should you pick?
Pick Particle 1 when you need the longer context window (1,048,576 vs 131,072 tokens). Pick Llama 3.1.8 B Instruct when price per token dominates your workload — high-volume classification, extraction, or batch summarisation.