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Grok 3 vs Llama 4 8B

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

Grok 3 specs · Llama 4 8B specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceGrok 3

    Grok 3 publishes pricing ($15.00 / 1M output tokens) while Llama 4 8B does not.

  • Context windowTie

    Both ship a 128K-token context window.

  • BenchmarksTie

    No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.

  • ModalitiesGrok 3

    Grok 3 supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Llama 4 8B.

  • OpennessLlama 4 8B

    Llama 4 8B ships open weights (Llama 4 Community License); Grok 3 is API-only.

On balance Grok 3 edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Llama 4 8B's 1. Grok 3 publishes pricing ($15.00 / 1M output tokens) while Llama 4 8B does not. Both ship a 128K-token context window.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, Grok 3 handles text, vision while Llama 4 8B handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Llama 4 8B ships open weights (Llama 4 Community License); Grok 3 is API-only.

Llama 4 8B is the newer of the two, released 2 months after Grok 3, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Grok 3 is usually picked for chatbots and research agent workloads, while Llama 4 8B sees more deployments in local llm and on device. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecGrok 3Llama 4 8B
ProviderxAIMeta
ReleasedFeb 2025Apr 2025
Modalitiestext, visiontext
Context window128K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$3.00 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Output · 1M$15.00 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff2024-08,
Open weightsNoYes (Llama 4 Community License)
API availableYesYes

Pricing at scale

What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day$31.50 vs ,
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$315 vs ,
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$540 vs ,

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Grok 3$1.05
  • Llama 4 8BPricing unavailable

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

Benchmark scores not yet available. We only publish numbers we can source from official model cards or independent leaderboards, see methodology.
Pick Grok 3 if

Grok 3 fits when…

  • Real-time X access
  • Reasoning modes
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Pick Llama 4 8B if

Llama 4 8B fits when…

  • Runs on consumer laptops
  • Broad tooling support
  • Apache-2-adjacent permissiveness for most uses
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Llama 4 Community License).
Don't want either?

Consider Grok 4

xAI's mid-2025 flagship, top scores on Humanity's Last Exam at launch, with native real-time X integration.

See Grok 4 specsGrok 3 vs Grok 4Llama 4 8B vs Grok 4

Frequently asked

  • Is Grok 3 or Llama 4 8B cheaper?
    Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Both Grok 3 and Llama 4 8B ship a 128K-token context window.
  • Is Grok 3 or Llama 4 8B better for coding?
    Both Grok 3 and Llama 4 8B are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.
  • Are either of these models open source?
    Llama 4 8B ships open weights (Llama 4 Community License). Grok 3 is API-only.
  • When were Grok 3 and Llama 4 8B released?
    Grok 3 was released by xAI on 2025-02-17. Llama 4 8B was released by Meta on 2025-04-05.
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