Compare
Llama 3 1 8b Instant vs Llama 4 Maverick 17b 128e
This page is context-first: how much text each model can take in one request. Full specs adds capabilities and limits; the pricing matrix below is only about $/million tokens from hosts that list both models.
Model
Llama 3 1 8b Instant
Context window
128K
128,000 tokens · ~96K words
Model
Llama 4 Maverick 17b 128e
Context window
131K
131,072 tokens · ~98K words
Context window · side by side
Bar length is relative to the larger of the two windows (100% = max of this pair). This is not pricing.
Llama 4 Maverick 17b 128e has about 1× the context window of the other in this pair.
Llama 4 Maverick 17b 128e has 2% more context capacity (131K vs 128K tokens). Llama 3 1 8b Instant is 75% cheaper on input.
Quick verdicts
Short takeaways — validate with your own workloads.
Long document processing
Use Llama 4 Maverick 17b 128e. Its 131K context fits entire documents without chunking (vs 128K).
RAG / high-volume retrieval
Use Llama 3 1 8b Instant. Input tokens are 75% cheaper — critical when sending large retrieved contexts.
Full specs
Context, output, capabilities, and dates. Green highlights the favorable value where we compute a winner.
| Spec | Llama 3 1 8b Instant | Llama 4 Maverick 17b 128e |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 128,000 tokens (128K) | 131,072 tokens (131K) |
| Max output tokens | 8,192 tokens (8K) | 8,192 tokens (8K) |
| Speed tier | Fast | Fast |
| Vision | No | Yes |
| Function calling | Yes | Yes |
| Extended thinking | No | No |
| Prompt caching | No | No |
| Batch API | No | No |
| Release date | N/A | N/A |
Pricing matrix
Dollar rates only: hosts that list both models, per 1M tokens. For how much text fits, use the context section above — not this table.
| Provider | Llama 3 1 8b Instant in | Llama 3 1 8b Instant out | Llama 4 Maverick 17b 128e in | Llama 4 Maverick 17b 128e out |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Groq | $0.050/M | $0.080/M | $0.200/M | $0.600/M |
| Sambanova | — | — | $0.630/M | $1.80/M |
Frequently asked questions
Powered by Mem0
Use a smaller model.
Get better results.
Mem0 gives your AI long-term memory so you stop re-sending context on every call. That means you can use a smaller, faster, cheaper model — and still get better answers.
Example: a multi-turn chat session
80% less to send — works with any model