Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.
| Metric | Qwen3 8B (Non-reasoning) | Hermes 3 - Llama-3.1 70B |
|---|---|---|
| Input ($/M tokens) | $0.18 | $0.7 |
| Output ($/M tokens) | $0.7 | $0.7 |
Verdict. Qwen3 8B (Non-reasoning) and Hermes 3 - Llama-3.1 70B have benchmark data on different categories, so this comparison focuses on price, speed, and overlapping benchmarks.
Pricing. Both models sit in the budget bracket for output-token pricing. At 1.0× the per-million-token cost, Hermes 3 - Llama-3.1 70B is meaningfully cheaper if your traffic is output-heavy (long completions, document generation, agent loops). Hermes 3 - Llama-3.1 70B makes more sense when output volume is low and absolute reasoning quality justifies the premium.
Strengths. Qwen3 8B (Non-reasoning) is strongest on Intelligence Index (4.8). Hermes 3 - Llama-3.1 70B leads on Intelligence Index (4.8).
Speed. Throughput is comparable — 39 tok/s vs 34 tok/s — so generation speed shouldn't drive your choice here. Look at the per-benchmark wins instead.
Provider. Alibaba and Nous Research sell to overlapping but distinct developer audiences: Alibaba tends to ship frontier reasoning models with premium positioning, while Nous Research often prices more aggressively. Your existing vendor relationships, billing, and SLA preferences may matter as much as the raw numbers above.
Workload cost. Workload scenarios (per million requests at 30M input + 15M output tokens): Qwen3 8B (Non-reasoning) costs $15.90 ($191/year); Hermes 3 - Llama-3.1 70B costs $31.50 ($378/year). At a smaller 5M-input/2M-output scale (single-developer tool or prototype): Qwen3 8B (Non-reasoning) ≈ $2.30/run, Hermes 3 - Llama-3.1 70B ≈ $4.90/run. At agent/realtime scale (200M input / 100M output per million requests): Qwen3 8B (Non-reasoning) ≈ $106/run, Hermes 3 - Llama-3.1 70B ≈ $210/run. Qwen3 8B (Non-reasoning) becomes more attractive at higher volume — the absolute per-token pricing difference compounds when you ship at scale.
Recommendation. Both models have legitimate use cases — the right answer depends on whether you are optimizing for benchmark ceiling, latency, or unit cost. Start with the cheaper / faster model, evaluate against your specific task, and only switch if the upgrade shows a meaningful lift.
Head-to-head deltas
Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks
Qwen3 8B (Non-reasoning) is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $0.31/M tokens vs $0.70/M for Hermes 3 - Llama-3.1 70B.
It's a tie — both models win 0 benchmarks each across 12 evaluated categories. See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.
Qwen3 8B (Non-reasoning) generates tokens faster at 39 tok/s vs 34 tok/s. However, Hermes 3 - Llama-3.1 70B has lower time-to-first-token (1.97s vs 3.77s).
Choose based on your priorities: Qwen3 8B (Non-reasoning) for lower cost, both perform similarly on benchmarks, and Qwen3 8B (Non-reasoning) for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.