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MetaLlama-3.1 405BVSMetaLlama-3.1 8B

Analysis by:the whichllmmodel Editorial Team|Updated: June 2026

Our Take

We recommend Llama-3.1 8B for practical local execution on standard developer hardware, or Llama-3.1 405B if you need peak reasoning and have the VRAM (or a cloud API) to host it. While Llama-3.1 405B offers frontier capability, its massive parameter size makes it extremely difficult to host locally. Choose Llama-3.1 8B for standard local setups, or Llama-3.1 405B for peak reasoning.
WHY?
Benchmark Calculations & Evidence:
  • Model Size: Llama-3.1 405B is a massive 405B parameter model requiring heavy GPU infrastructure, while Llama-3.1 8B is a 8B parameter model.
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    Model Specs

    Llama-3.1 405B

    Open Source

    Benchmarks & Scores

    Coding (human-eval)Winner (+16.4%)
    89%

    basic standalone code completion and simple functions

    Reasoning (gpqa-diamond)Winner (+20.3%)
    50.7%

    graduate-level science QA

    Cost & Context

    Cost (per 1M tokens)
    Self HostLocal execution (zero API fees)
    Context Window
    131.07k tokens
    Model Specs

    Llama-3.1 8B

    Open Source

    Benchmarks & Scores

    Coding (human-eval)
    72.6%

    basic standalone code completion and simple functions

    Reasoning (gpqa-diamond)
    30.4%

    graduate-level science QA

    Cost & Context

    Cost (per 1M tokens)
    Self HostLocal execution (zero API fees)
    Context Window
    131.07k tokens

    Frequently Asked Questions about Llama-3.1 405B vs Llama-3.1 8B

    Llama-3.1 405B is better for coding tasks on this benchmark. It scores 89% on human-eval (basic standalone code completion and simple functions) compared to Llama-3.1 8B which scores 72.6%.

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