Compare/Gemma 3 4B Instruct vs Llama 3.1 Instruct 8B

Gemma 3 4B InstructvsLlama 3.1 Instruct 8B

Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.

Google

Gemma 3 4B Instruct

Input
$0.04/M
Output
$0.08/M
Speed
TTFT
Meta

Llama 3.1 Instruct 8B

Input
$0.1/M
Output
$0.1/M
Speed
222 tok/s
TTFT
0.48s

Winner by Category

Cheaper
Gemma 3 4B Instruct
Faster (tok/s)
Llama 3.1 Instruct 8B
Lower Latency
Gemma 3 4B Instruct
Benchmarks (5-6)
Llama 3.1 Instruct 8B

Pricing Comparison

MetricGemma 3 4B InstructLlama 3.1 Instruct 8B
Input ($/M tokens)$0.04$0.1
Output ($/M tokens)$0.08$0.1
Cost for 1M input + 100K output tokens:
Gemma 3 4B Instruct$0.05
Llama 3.1 Instruct 8B$0.11

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Gemma 3 4B Instruct
Llama 3.1 Instruct 8B
222 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Gemma 3 4B Instruct
Llama 3.1 Instruct 8B
0.48s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
6.311.8
Coding Index
2.94.9
Math Index
12.74.3
GPQA Diamond
29.1%25.9%
MMLU-Pro
41.7%47.6%
LiveCodeBench
11.2%11.6%
AIME 2025
12.7%4.3%
MATH-500
76.6%51.9%
Humanity's Last Exam
5.2%5.1%
SciCode
7.3%13.2%
IFBench
28.3%28.6%
TerminalBench
0.8%0.8%
Gemma 3 4B Instruct5 wins
6 winsLlama 3.1 Instruct 8B

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 4B Instruct or Llama 3.1 Instruct 8B?

Gemma 3 4B Instruct is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $0.05/M tokens vs $0.10/M for Llama 3.1 Instruct 8B.

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

Llama 3.1 Instruct 8B wins 6 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 5 for Gemma 3 4B Instruct. See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.

Which is faster for real-time applications?

Llama 3.1 Instruct 8B generates tokens faster at 222 tok/s vs 0 tok/s. Gemma 3 4B Instruct also has lower time-to-first-token (0.00s vs 0.48s).

When should I use Gemma 3 4B Instruct vs Llama 3.1 Instruct 8B?

Choose based on your priorities: Gemma 3 4B Instruct for lower cost, Llama 3.1 Instruct 8B for stronger benchmark performance, and Llama 3.1 Instruct 8B for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.