GPT-3.5 Turbo vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct Comparison

Comparing GPT-3.5 Turbo and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

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Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

4 benchmarks

GPT-3.5 Turbo outperforms in 3 benchmarks (DROP, GPQA, MMLU), while Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is better at 1 benchmark (HumanEval).

GPT-3.5 Turbo shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.

Mon Mar 16 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs less

For input processing, GPT-3.5 Turbo ($0.50/1M tokens) is 16.7x more expensive than Llama 3.1 8B Instruct ($0.03/1M tokens).

For output processing, GPT-3.5 Turbo ($1.50/1M tokens) is 50.0x more expensive than Llama 3.1 8B Instruct ($0.03/1M tokens).

In conclusion, GPT-3.5 Turbo 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

Mon Mar 16 2026 • llm-stats.com

GPT-3.5 Turbo

Input tokens$0.50

Output tokens$1.50

Best providerAzure

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Input tokens$0.03

Output tokens$0.03

Best providerLambda

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Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct accepts 131,072 input tokens compared to GPT-3.5 Turbo's 16,385 tokens. Llama 3.1 8B Instruct can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while GPT-3.5 Turbo is limited to 4,096 tokens.

GPT-3.5 Turbo

Input16,385 tokens

Output4,096 tokens

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Input131,072 tokens

Output131,072 tokens

Mon Mar 16 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

GPT-3.5 Turbo 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.

GPT-3.5 Turbo

Proprietary

Closed source

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Llama 3.1 Community License

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

GPT-3.5 Turbo was released on 2023-03-21, while Llama 3.1 8B Instruct was released on 2024-07-23.

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is 16 months newer than GPT-3.5 Turbo.

GPT-3.5 Turbo

Mar 21, 2023

3.0 years ago

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Jul 23, 2024

1.6 years ago

1.3yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

GPT-3.5 Turbo has a knowledge cutoff of 2021-09-30, while Llama 3.1 8B Instruct has a cutoff of 2023-12-31.

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct has more recent training data (up to 2023-12-31), making it potentially better informed about events through that date compared to GPT-3.5 Turbo (2021-09-30).

GPT-3.5 Turbo

Sep 2021

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Dec 2023

2.3 yr newer

Provider Availability

GPT-3.5 Turbo is available from Azure, OpenAI. Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is available from Lambda, DeepInfra, Groq, Sambanova, Cerebras, Hyperbolic, Together, Fireworks, Bedrock. The availability of providers can affect quality of the model and reliability.