Claude Sonnet 4 Lite vs Llama 3.1 8B
Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026
Claude Sonnet 4 Lite
AnthropicLighter version of Claude Sonnet 4. Good balance of quality and cost for day-to-day coding.
| Input | $1.00/M |
| Output | $5.00/M |
| Context | 200K tokens |
| Best For | Day-to-day coding, documentation, cost-conscious teams |
| Benchmark | 70/100 |
Llama 3.1 8B
MetaMeta's smallest Llama 3.1 model. Open weights, deploy anywhere. Great for self-hosted applications.
| Input | $0.050/M |
| Output | $0.100/M |
| Context | 128K tokens |
| Best For | Self-hosted AI, fine-tuning, budget applications |
Cost Comparison by Scenario
Estimated cost per project with 30% cache hit rate. Actual costs may vary based on usage patterns.
| Scenario | Claude Sonnet 4 Lite | Llama 3.1 8B | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Script (1K lines) | $0.21 | <$0.01 | Llama 3.1 8B saves $0.20 (98%) |
| Medium Feature (10K lines) | $1.55 | $0.04 | Llama 3.1 8B saves $1.51 (98%) |
| Large Project (50K lines) | $7.76 | $0.19 | Llama 3.1 8B saves $7.58 (98%) |
| Code Review (5K lines) | $0.40 | $0.01 | Llama 3.1 8B saves $0.39 (97%) |
Verdict
Llama 3.1 8B wins on both price and performance — $0.050/M input with a benchmark score of N/A/100.
For most developers, this is the clear choice between these two models.
Compare with Other Models
Claude Sonnet 4
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Claude Opus 4
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Claude 3.5 Sonnet
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Claude 3.5 Haiku
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Claude 3 Opus
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Claude 3 Sonnet
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