Model Comparison

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct vs Qwen3.8 MaxWhich is better in 2026?

Qwen3.8 Max significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Llama 3.1 70B Instruct vs Qwen3.8 Max — which is better?

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct (by Meta) and Qwen3.8 Max (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.8 Max is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA). Qwen3.8 Max significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Llama 3.1 70B Instruct if…

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Choose Qwen3.8 Max if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.8 Max is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA).

Qwen3.8 Max significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Mon Aug 03 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

2330.0B diff

Qwen3.8 Max has 2330.0B more parameters than Llama 3.1 70B Instruct, making it 3328.6% larger.

Meta
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
70.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.8 Max
2.4Tparameters
70.0B
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
2400.0B
Qwen3.8 Max

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Llama 3.1 70B Instruct specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Llama 3.1 70B Instruct specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

Meta
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.8 Max
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mon Aug 03 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Qwen3.8 Max supports multimodal inputs, whereas Llama 3.1 70B Instruct does not.

Qwen3.8 Max can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3.8 Max

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct is licensed under Llama 3.1 Community License, while Qwen3.8 Max uses a proprietary license.

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

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

Llama 3.1 Community License

Open weights

Qwen3.8 Max

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct was released on 2024-07-23, while Qwen3.8 Max was released on 2026-08-02.

Qwen3.8 Max is 25 months newer than Llama 3.1 70B Instruct.

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

Jul 23, 2024

2.0 years ago

Qwen3.8 Max

Aug 2, 2026

1 days ago

2.0yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Meta
Larger context window (128,000 tokens)
Has open weights
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen3.8 Max

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Supports multimodal inputs
Higher GPQA score (92.6% vs 41.7%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Llama 3.1 70B Instruct and Qwen3.8 Max side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
✓ Preferred
Qwen3.8 Max
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Meta
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.8 Max

FAQ

Common questions about Llama 3.1 70B Instruct vs Qwen3.8 Max.

Which is better, Llama 3.1 70B Instruct or Qwen3.8 Max?

Qwen3.8 Max significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Llama 3.1 70B Instruct is made by Meta and Qwen3.8 Max is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Llama 3.1 70B Instruct compare to Qwen3.8 Max in benchmarks?

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct scores GSM-8K (CoT): 95.1%, ARC-C: 94.8%, API-Bank: 90.0%, IFEval: 87.5%, Multilingual MGSM (CoT): 86.9%. Qwen3.8 Max scores PaperBench: 93.0%, GPQA: 92.6%, VideoMME w sub.: 90.4%, RealWorldQA: 88.0%, Terminal-Bench 2.1: 86.6%.

What are the context window sizes for Llama 3.1 70B Instruct and Qwen3.8 Max?

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct supports 128K tokens and Qwen3.8 Max supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Llama 3.1 70B Instruct and Qwen3.8 Max?

Key differences include multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (Llama 3.1 Community License vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Llama 3.1 70B Instruct and Qwen3.8 Max?

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct is developed by Meta and Qwen3.8 Max is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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