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Head-to-head comparison

granite 3.3 8b instruct vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

granite 3.3 8b instruct (IBM Granite) and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct (Meta) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.

Snapshot as of 17 September 2026

As of 17 September 2026, granite 3.3 8b instruct holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#203 vs #204); and granite 3.3 8b instruct ships open weights.

Which should you choose?

Choose granite 3.3 8b instruct if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #203 against #204 (8.4 vs 7.6 points).
  • you want to self-host: granite 3.3 8b instruct ships open weights while Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is gated access.
  • you want the more recently listed model — granite 3.3 8b instruct was listed 9 April 2025, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct 23 July 2024.

Choose Llama 3.1 8B Instruct if…

  • you want provider choice — 5 listed API providers against 0.

granite 3.3 8b instruct vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of granite 3.3 8b instruct and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Fieldgranite 3.3 8b instructIBM GraniteLlama 3.1 8B InstructMeta
ModelCap Index position#203#204
Index score8.47.6
EvidenceEstimatedMeasured
Input price / 1M tokensUnlisted$0.05
Output price / 1M tokensUnlisted$0.08
Context window— tokens131K tokens
Max output tokens—118K
API providers listed05
Weight accessOpen weightsGated access
Input modalitiesTextText
First listed9 April 202523 July 2024
PublisherIBM GraniteMeta

Evidence: publisher-corpus-prior over 197 held-out anchors (8%); opens above measured predecessor ibm-granite/granite-3.1-8b-instruct on same-family ordering evidence (30%); launch card against 4 resolved peers on 5 rows (62%); exceeds every named peer on 2 of 5 rows; optimism haircut 1.61 from cross-lab-probe; shrunk 1.4 up toward the measured corpus · 2 public benchmark observations across 2 boards. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: granite 3.3 8b instruct vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Public benchmark boards where granite 3.3 8b instruct or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct has a published result
Boardgranite 3.3 8b instructLlama 3.1 8B InstructLeads
Arena codingArena (LMArena)—12601252–1267Only one result
BFCL V4UC Berkeley (Gorilla)—25.8PromptOnly one result
AA τ²-Bench TelecomArtificial Analysis10.5%tau2:telecom:dual-control:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="Granite 3.3 8B (Non-reasoning)":reasoning=false—Only one result
AA Humanity's Last ExamArtificial Analysis4.2%hle:may-2025:text-only-2158:no-tools:pass-at-1:source-model="Granite 3.3 8B (Non-reasoning)":reasoning=false—Only one result

Scores are the sources' own published figures for each model's best evaluated configuration; ModelCap never re-runs a benchmark.

Want a different pairing? Open the interactive comparison tool to swap either model for any current ranked language model.

granite 3.3 8b instruct vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct: common questions

Is granite 3.3 8b instruct better than Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

granite 3.3 8b instruct ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 17 September 2026: #203 against #204. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it. Their published uncertainty intervals overlap, so the rank difference alone does not establish a reliable capability advantage for your workload.

Is granite 3.3 8b instruct cheaper than Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

At least one of the two has no listed API price on ModelCap right now, so no price comparison is made.

Which has the bigger context window, granite 3.3 8b instruct or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Both publish a —-token context window.

Which is better for coding, granite 3.3 8b instruct or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

The two models do not share a coding benchmark board on ModelCap yet, so no head-to-head coding score is published; the ModelCap Index position is the closest overall signal.

Are granite 3.3 8b instruct and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct open-weight models?

granite 3.3 8b instruct: Open weights. Llama 3.1 8B Instruct: Gated access. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence; API-only models are available solely through hosted endpoints.

Where can I run granite 3.3 8b instruct and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

ModelCap currently lists 0 API providers for granite 3.3 8b instruct and 5 for Llama 3.1 8B Instruct, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this granite 3.3 8b instruct vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 17 September 2026; the page re-renders within a minute of each data refresh, and the ModelCap Index positions are the same ones shown on the live rankings.

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