Llama 3.1 405B Instruct vs Llama 3.3 70B Instruct
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct and Llama 3.3 70B Instruct are closely matched at 14.7 and 13.8 on the LLM Stats Score. Llama 3.3 70B Instruct is 7.1x cheaper per token.
Meta · Meta · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct and Llama 3.3 70B Instruct are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 14.7 and 13.8.
In the 7 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Llama 3.1 405B Instruct wins 5; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Llama 3.3 70B Instruct is roughly 7.1x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Llama 3.3 70B Instruct also accepts a larger context window (131,072 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 Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 5 of 7 exact shared results
Choose Llama 3.3 70B Instruct
- cost matters — it's about 7.1x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 131,072 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Dec 2024
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
18 reported for Llama 3.1 405B Instruct · 9 for Llama 3.3 70B Instruct
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct outperforms in 5 benchmarks (GPQA, HumanEval, MBPP EvalPlus, MMLU, MMLU-Pro), while Llama 3.3 70B Instruct is better at 2 benchmarks (IFEval, MATH).
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Llama 3.1 405B Instruct ($0.89/1M tokens) is 8.9x more expensive than Llama 3.3 70B Instruct ($0.10/1M tokens).
For output processing, Llama 3.1 405B Instruct ($0.89/1M tokens) is 4.5x more expensive than Llama 3.3 70B Instruct ($0.20/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is more expensive than Llama 3.3 70B Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct has 335.0B more parameters than Llama 3.3 70B Instruct, making it 478.6% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Llama 3.3 70B Instruct accepts 131,072 input tokens compared to Llama 3.1 405B Instruct's 128,000 tokens. Llama 3.3 70B Instruct can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is limited to 128,000 tokens.
License
Usage and distribution terms
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is licensed under Llama 3.1 Community License, while Llama 3.3 70B Instruct uses Llama 3.3 Community License Agreement.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Llama 3.1 Community License
Open weights
Llama 3.3 Community License Agreement
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct was released on 2024-07-23, while Llama 3.3 70B Instruct was released on 2024-12-06.
Llama 3.3 70B Instruct is 5 months newer than Llama 3.1 405B Instruct.
Jul 23, 2024
2.2 years ago
Dec 6, 2024
1.8 years ago
4mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is available from Lambda, DeepInfra, Fireworks, Bedrock, Together, Hyperbolic, Google, Replicate. Llama 3.3 70B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Lambda, Hyperbolic, Groq, Sambanova, Cerebras, Bedrock, Together, Fireworks.
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
Llama 3.3 70B Instruct
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Llama 3.1 405B Instruct and Llama 3.3 70B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Llama 3.1 405B Instruct vs Llama 3.3 70B Instruct.