Llama 3.3 70B for open-source llms
Llama 3.3 70B is ranked #8 on LLMDex's open-source llms ranking out of 8 models we track for this use case. Below, the specific reasons it slots where it does, and when you should reach for an alternative.
Updated
At a glance
- Rank
- #8 of 8
- Context
- 128K tokens
- Output / 1M
- Pricing not published
- Released
- Dec 2024
Why Llama 3.3 70B fits this task
Three things about Llama 3.3 70B that map directly onto what this task rewards: Mature, well-tuned; 70B fits on a single H100; Wide tooling. Beyond the task-specific fit, Llama 3.3 70B also brings mature, well-tuned and 70b fits on a single h100, both of which compound when the workload broadens.
The criteria this task rewards
LLMDex ranks best open-source llms on 5 criteria , these are the axes the ranking uses, in priority order:
- Composite benchmark performance
- License permissiveness (Apache, MIT, custom OSS)
- Inference economics on commodity GPUs
- Fine-tuning ecosystem maturity
- Multilingual coverage
How Llama 3.3 70B scores on each axis
Where Llama 3.3 70B costs you: no native vision. For most teams this is acceptable on this workload, the value of the strengths above outweighs the cost. For cost-bound workloads or teams with strict latency budgets, run an eval against the next two ranked models on real data before committing.
Strengths that pay off here
- Mature, well-tuned
- 70B fits on a single H100
- Wide tooling
Tracked weaknesses
- No native vision
- Superseded by Llama 4 70B
When to pick something else
If you can pay slightly more or accept slightly different tradeoffs, Qwen2.5-72B from Alibaba ranks one position higher and tends to win on the hardest cases. The previous-generation Qwen flagship, still widely deployed for stability.
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Other models for open-source llms
- Llama 4 405B for open-source llms
Meta's flagship open-weight model, sparse MoE design competitive with closed-frontier flagships.
Read guide - DeepSeek-V3 for open-source llms
DeepSeek's flagship 671B-parameter MoE, frontier-level quality at a tiny fraction of frontier prices.
Read guide - Qwen3-72B for open-source llms
Alibaba's flagship open-weight Qwen3, strong on multilingual, code, and math, Apache-2.0 licensed.
Read guide - Llama 4 70B for open-source llms
Meta's mid-tier Llama 4, the practical workhorse for self-hosted deployments.
Read guide - DeepSeek-R1 for open-source llms
First open-weight reasoning model to match o1, the release that proved RL-from-scratch reasoning training was reproducible.
Read guide
Llama 3.3 70B for other use cases
Direct comparisons
Frequently asked
Is Llama 3.3 70B good for open-source llms?
Llama 3.3 70B is ranked #8 on LLMDex's open-source llms list. Meta's late-2024 70B refresh, much-improved over 3.1 with better instruction-following and tool-use.How much does Llama 3.3 70B cost for open-source llms?
Meta has not published per-token pricing for Llama 3.3 70B at the time of writing.What's a cheaper alternative to Llama 3.3 70B for open-source llms?
Look at the full Best Open-Source LLMs ranking for cheaper picks at lower ranks.When should I NOT use Llama 3.3 70B for open-source llms?
Tracked weakness: No native vision. If that constraint is binding for your workload, the next-ranked model on this task is the safer pick.
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