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Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads the LLM Stats Score 58.1 to -2.6. Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is 177.8x cheaper per token.

Anthropic · Meta · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 58.1 to -2.6, ranking #3 overall.

On price, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is roughly 177.8x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 also accepts a larger context window (1,000,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Claude Sonnet 5.5

  • overall performance matters — it scores 58.1 and ranks #3 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 1,000,000 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2026

Choose Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

  • cost matters — it's about 177.8x cheaper per token
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Claude Sonnet 5.5
Anthropic
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Meta
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
58.1
#3
-2.6
#346
Reasoning
56.6
#3
-3.6
#344
Coding
48.9
#2
-2.3
#256
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
$2.00 / M
$0.02 / M
Output price
$10.00 / M
$0.03 / M
Context window
1,000,000
131,072

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

2 shared
Index
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Math
36.9#34
-2.5#313
Tool use
33.9#2
17.0#77
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

47 reported for Claude Sonnet 5.5 · 18 for Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

No common benchmarks found

Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Llama 3.1 8B Instructdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs less

For input processing, Claude Sonnet 5.5 ($2.00/1M tokens) is 100.0x more expensive than Llama 3.1 8B Instruct ($0.02/1M tokens).

For output processing, Claude Sonnet 5.5 ($10.00/1M tokens) is 333.3x more expensive than Llama 3.1 8B Instruct ($0.03/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Claude Sonnet 5.5 is more expensive than Llama 3.1 8B Instruct.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Tue Sep 29 2026 • llm-stats.com
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Input tokens$2.00
Output tokens$10.00
Best providerAnthropic
Meta
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Input tokens$0.02
Output tokens$0.03
Best providerDeepinfra
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Claude Sonnet 5.5 accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to Llama 3.1 8B Instruct's 131,072 tokens. Llama 3.1 8B Instruct can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while Claude Sonnet 5.5 is limited to 128,000 tokens.

Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Meta
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Input131,072 tokens
Output131,072 tokens
Tue Sep 29 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Claude Sonnet 5.5 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Llama 3.1 8B Instruct does not.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Claude Sonnet 5.5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Llama 3.1 8B Instruct uses Llama 3.1 Community License.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Claude Sonnet 5.5

Proprietary

Closed source

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Llama 3.1 Community License

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude Sonnet 5.5 was released on 2026-09-28, while Llama 3.1 8B Instruct was released on 2024-07-23.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is 27 months newer than Llama 3.1 8B Instruct.

Claude Sonnet 5.5

Sep 28, 2026

1 days ago

2.2yr newer
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Jul 23, 2024

2.2 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Claude Sonnet 5.5 has a knowledge cutoff of 2026-06-01, while Llama 3.1 8B Instruct has a cutoff of 2023-12-31.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 has more recent training data (up to 2026-06-01), making it potentially better informed about events through that date compared to Llama 3.1 8B Instruct (2023-12-31).

Claude Sonnet 5.5

Jun 2026

2.5 yr newer
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Dec 2023

Provider Availability

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is available from Anthropic. Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Lambda, Groq, Sambanova, Cerebras, Hyperbolic, Together, Fireworks, Bedrock.

Claude Sonnet 5.5

anthropic logo
Anthropic
Input Price:Input: $2.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $10.00/1M

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.02/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.04/1M
lambda logo
Lambda
Input Price:Input: $0.03/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.03/1M
groq logo
Groq
Input Price:Input: $0.05/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.08/1M
sambanova logo
Sambanova
Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.20/1M
cerebras logo
Cerebras
Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.10/1M
hyperbolic logo
Hyperbolic
Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.10/1M
together logo
Together
Input Price:Input: $0.20/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.20/1M
fireworks logo
Fireworks
Input Price:Input: $0.20/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.20/1M
bedrock logo
AWS Bedrock
Input Price:Input: $0.22/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.22/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Claude Sonnet 5.5
✓ Preferred
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct.

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads the LLM Stats Score 58.1 to -2.6. Claude Sonnet 5.5 is made by Anthropic and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is made by Meta. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Claude Sonnet 5.5 compare to Llama 3.1 8B Instruct in benchmarks?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores BenchCAD (with Python tool): 96.3%, ArXivMath (with tools): 95.2%, Global-MMLU: 92.1%, MILU: 91.6%, SWE-bench Multilingual: 90.3%. Llama 3.1 8B Instruct scores GSM-8K (CoT): 84.5%, ARC-C: 83.4%, API-Bank: 82.6%, IFEval: 80.4%, BFCL: 76.1%.

Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 cheaper than Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is 100.0x cheaper for input tokens. Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $2.00/M input and $10.00/M output via anthropic. Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs $0.02/M input and $0.03/M output via deepinfra.

What are the context window sizes for Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 supports 1.0M tokens and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct supports 131K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (58.1 vs -2.6), context window (1.0M vs 131K), input pricing ($2.00 vs $0.02/M), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs Llama 3.1 Community License). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is developed by Anthropic and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is developed by Meta.

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