Llama 4 Maverick vs Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
Llama 4 Maverick and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct are closely matched at 14.7 and 13.8 on the LLM Stats Score. Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is 1.5x cheaper per token.
Meta · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Llama 4 Maverick and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 14.7 and 13.8.
In the 3 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Llama 4 Maverick wins 3; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is roughly 1.5x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Llama 4 Maverick 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 Llama 4 Maverick
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 3 of 3 exact shared results
- you process long inputs — it offers a 1,000,000 token context window
Choose Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
- cost matters — it's about 1.5x cheaper per token
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
13 reported for Llama 4 Maverick · 46 for Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
Llama 4 Maverick outperforms in 3 benchmarks (MMLU, MMLU-Pro, MMMU-Pro), while Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.
Llama 4 Maverick significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Llama 4 Maverick ($0.17/1M tokens) is 2.1x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct ($0.08/1M tokens).
For output processing, Llama 4 Maverick ($0.60/1M tokens) is 1.2x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct ($0.50/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Llama 4 Maverick is more expensive than Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Llama 4 Maverick has 391.0B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct, making it 4344.4% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Llama 4 Maverick accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct's 131,072 tokens. Llama 4 Maverick can generate longer responses up to 1,000,000 tokens, while Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is limited to 32,768 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Both Llama 4 Maverick and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
License
Usage and distribution terms
Llama 4 Maverick is licensed under Llama 4 Community License Agreement, while Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Llama 4 Community License Agreement
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Llama 4 Maverick was released on 2025-04-05, while Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is 6 months newer than Llama 4 Maverick.
Apr 5, 2025
1.5 years ago
Sep 22, 2025
1.0 years ago
5mo 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 4 Maverick is available from DeepInfra, Novita, Lambda, Groq, Fireworks, Together, Sambanova. Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct is available from Novita, DeepInfra.
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Llama 4 Maverick and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Llama 4 Maverick vs Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct.