Compare/Llama 3.1 Instruct 405B vs Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)

Llama 3.1 Instruct 405BvsGrok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)

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

Meta

Llama 3.1 Instruct 405B

Input
$2.75/M
Output
$6.5/M
Speed
31 tok/s
TTFT
0.47s
xAI

Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)

Input
$2/M
Output
$6/M
Speed
189 tok/s
TTFT
0.31s

Winner by Category

Cheaper
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)
Faster (tok/s)
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)
Lower Latency
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)
Benchmarks (5-7)
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)

Pricing Comparison

MetricLlama 3.1 Instruct 405BGrok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)
Input ($/M tokens)$2.75$2
Output ($/M tokens)$6.5$6
Cost for 1M input + 100K output tokens:
Llama 3.1 Instruct 405B$3.40
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)$2.60

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Llama 3.1 Instruct 405B
31 tok/s
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)
189 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Llama 3.1 Instruct 405B
0.47s
Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)
0.31s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
17.429.7
Coding Index
14.525.4
Math Index
3.0
GPQA Diamond
51.5%78.5%
MMLU-Pro
73.2%
LiveCodeBench
30.5%
AIME 2025
3.0%
MATH-500
70.3%
Humanity's Last Exam
4.2%22.5%
SciCode
29.9%32.2%
IFBench
39.0%47.8%
TerminalBench
6.8%22.0%
Llama 3.1 Instruct 405B5 wins
7 winsGrok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, Llama 3.1 Instruct 405B or Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)?

Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning) is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $3.00/M tokens vs $3.69/M for Llama 3.1 Instruct 405B.

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning) wins 7 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 5 for Llama 3.1 Instruct 405B. See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.

Which is faster for real-time applications?

Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning) generates tokens faster at 189 tok/s vs 31 tok/s. However, Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning) has lower time-to-first-token (0.31s vs 0.47s).

When should I use Llama 3.1 Instruct 405B vs Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning)?

Choose based on your priorities: Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning) for lower cost, Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning) for stronger benchmark performance, and Grok 4.20 Beta 0309 (Non-reasoning) for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.