Llama 3.1 8B Instruct alternatives
Match · Updated July 2026
The closest alternative to Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is Llama Guard 4 12B — comparable intelligence (— vs —); for a cheaper option, gpt-oss-120b runs $0.037/M vs $0.050/M; and the best open-weight substitute is Kimi K3.
Closest match
Cheaper alternatives
gpt-oss-120b
$0.037/M input · 23.8 intel
gpt-5-nano:batch
$0.025/M input · 19.9 intel
north-mini-code:free
Free/M input · 19.8 intel
nemotron-3-nano-omni-30b-a3b-reasoning:free
Free/M input · 14.9 intel
gpt-oss-20b
$0.030/M input · 14.9 intel
gpt-oss-20b:free
Free/M input · 14.9 intel
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 Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?
Llama Guard 4 12B is the closest alternative to Llama 3.1 8B Instruct, with an Intelligence Index of — (Llama 3.1 8B Instruct scores —) at $0.180 per million input tokens.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?
Yes — gpt-oss-120b costs $0.037 per million input tokens versus $0.050 for Llama 3.1 8B Instruct, while staying within ~8 points of its Intelligence Index.
Is there an open-source alternative to Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?
Kimi K3 is the strongest open-weight alternative to Llama 3.1 8B Instruct — downloadable from Hugging Face and self-hostable, scoring 57.1 on intelligence.