R1 Distill Llama 70B alternatives
Match · Updated July 2026
The closest alternative to R1 Distill Llama 70B is Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct — comparable intelligence (10.0 vs 9.9); for a cheaper option, GPT-5.6 Luna runs $0.500/M vs $0.800/M; and the best open-weight substitute is Kimi K3.
Closest match
Cheaper alternatives
gpt-5.6-luna
$0.500/M input · 51.2 intel
glm-5.2
$0.699/M input · 51.1 intel
gemini-3.5-flash:batch
$0.750/M input · 50.2 intel
gemini-3.6-flash:batch
$0.750/M input · 50.1 intel
minimax-m3
$0.300/M input · 44.4 intel
minimax-m3:batch
$0.150/M input · 44.4 intel
Smarter alternatives
Open-source alternatives
kimi-k3
57.1 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
glm-5.2
51.1 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
minimax-m3
44.4 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
minimax-m3:batch
44.4 intel · open weights · 524K ctx
deepseek-v4-pro
44.3 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
kimi-k2.6
44.2 intel · open weights · 262K ctx
Frequently asked
What is the best alternative to R1 Distill Llama 70B?
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is the closest alternative to R1 Distill Llama 70B, with an Intelligence Index of 10.0 (R1 Distill Llama 70B scores 9.9) at $0.150 per million input tokens.
Is there a cheaper alternative to R1 Distill Llama 70B?
Yes — GPT-5.6 Luna costs $0.500 per million input tokens versus $0.800 for R1 Distill Llama 70B, while staying within ~8 points of its Intelligence Index.
Is there an open-source alternative to R1 Distill Llama 70B?
Kimi K3 is the strongest open-weight alternative to R1 Distill Llama 70B — downloadable from Hugging Face and self-hostable, scoring 57.1 on intelligence.