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Head-to-head comparison

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Llama Guard 4 12B

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct (Meta) and Llama Guard 4 12B (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 August 2026

As of 17 August 2026, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#212 vs #229); Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is 2.3× cheaper per output token ($0.08/1M vs $0.18/1M); and Llama Guard 4 12B offers the longer context window (1M vs 131K tokens).

Which should you choose?

Choose Llama 3.1 8B Instruct if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #212 against #229 (3.9 vs 0.0 points).
  • API cost matters — $0.08/1M output tokens against $0.18/1M, about 2.3× cheaper.
  • your workload is prompt-heavy — input tokens cost $0.05/1M against $0.18/1M.
  • you want provider choice — 5 listed API providers against 2.

Choose Llama Guard 4 12B if…

  • you need the longer context window — 1M tokens against 131K.
  • you want the more recently listed model — Llama Guard 4 12B was listed 30 April 2025, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct 23 July 2024.

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Llama Guard 4 12B: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of Llama 3.1 8B Instruct and Llama Guard 4 12B
FieldLlama 3.1 8B InstructMetaLlama Guard 4 12BMeta
ModelCap Index position#212#229
Index score3.90.0
EvidenceMeasuredEstimated
Input price / 1M tokens$0.05$0.18
Output price / 1M tokens$0.08$0.18
Context window131K tokens1M tokens
Max output tokens131K16K
API providers listed52
Weight accessGated accessGated access
Input modalitiesTextImage, Text
First listed23 July 202430 April 2025
PublisherMetaMeta

Evidence: 2 public benchmark observations across 2 boards · publisher corpus prior · leave-one-anchor-out calibrated. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Llama Guard 4 12B

Public benchmark boards where Llama 3.1 8B Instruct or Llama Guard 4 12B has a published result
BoardLlama 3.1 8B InstructLlama Guard 4 12BLeads
Arena codingArena (LMArena)12601252–1267—Only one result
BFCL V4UC Berkeley (Gorilla)25.8Prompt—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.

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Llama Guard 4 12B: common questions

Is Llama 3.1 8B Instruct better than Llama Guard 4 12B?

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 17 August 2026: #212 against #229. 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.

Is Llama 3.1 8B Instruct cheaper than Llama Guard 4 12B?

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is cheaper on output tokens: $0.08/1M against $0.18/1M. Input tokens are $0.05/1M for Llama 3.1 8B Instruct and $0.18/1M for Llama Guard 4 12B. Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens.

Which has the bigger context window, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct or Llama Guard 4 12B?

Llama Guard 4 12B has the larger context window: 1M tokens against 131K.

Which is better for coding, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct or Llama Guard 4 12B?

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 Llama 3.1 8B Instruct and Llama Guard 4 12B open-weight models?

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct: Gated access. Llama Guard 4 12B: 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 Llama 3.1 8B Instruct and Llama Guard 4 12B?

ModelCap currently lists 5 API providers for Llama 3.1 8B Instruct and 2 for Llama Guard 4 12B, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Llama Guard 4 12B comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 17 August 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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