Can I run R1 Distill Llama 70B or Llama 3.1 8B cheaper on another provider?

Some models are available on inference providers like Together AI, Groq, and Fireworks AI at lower prices. Check each model's pricing page for the full provider comparison.

What is the context window difference between R1 Distill Llama 70B and Llama 3.1 8B?

R1 Distill Llama 70B has a larger context window at 131K tokens vs 128K. This matters for long documents, large codebases, and extended conversation histories.

Compare

R1 Distill Llama 70B vs Llama 3.1 8B

Pricing is only the shared seller matrix below. Best rates and catalog map are separate sections, so no chart is embedded in pricing. Open the calculator for the same workload on each side.

MetaDeepSeek R1

Model

R1 Distill Llama 70B

Best $0.200 in · $0.375 out

Context window 131K

Pricing

MetaLlama 3.1

Model

Llama 3.1 8B

Tool calling

Best $0.020 in · $0.030 out

Context window 128K

Pricing

Llama 3.1 8B is cheaper across the board — 92% cheaper on input and 92% cheaper on output.

Estimate cost

Pricing matrix

Shared sellers only. Each row is a host that lists both models. Dollar amounts are per 1M tokens. Lowest in each pair of columns is emphasized.

Provider	R1 Distill Llama 70B in	R1 Distill Llama 70B out	Llama 3.1 8B in	Llama 3.1 8B out
DeepInfra	$0.200	$0.600	$0.060	$0.060
Fireworks AI	$0.900	$0.900	$0.200	$0.200
Gradient	$0.990	$0.990	N/A	N/A
Groq	N/A	N/A	$0.050	$0.080
Llamagate	N/A	N/A	$0.030	$0.050
Nebius	$0.250	$0.750	N/A	N/A
Novita	$0.800	$0.800	$0.020	$0.050
Nscale	$0.375	$0.375	$0.030	$0.030
Openrouter	$0.700	$0.800	$0.020	$0.050
Ovhcloud	$0.670	$0.670	$0.100	$0.100
Perplexity	N/A	N/A	$0.200	$0.200
Sambanova	$0.700	$1.40	N/A	N/A
Together AI	N/A	N/A	$0.180	$0.180
Vercel Ai Gateway	$0.750	$0.990	$0.050	$0.080
Wandb	N/A	N/A	$22000.00	$22000.00

Best listed rates (this pair)

Same "best row in current pricing" logic as model pages: a compact view of the lowest input and output we show for each side. This is not the seller matrix.

Catalog map · Meta

Each chart uses real catalog rows that include both list input and list output ($/1M). Larger green dots are the models on this comparison page; accent dots are other active models from that provider.

Meta · input vs output

Scatter chart: X = input $/M, Y = output $/M. This page's models are labeled on the green dots; hover others for detail.

ListedoutputUSD/1M

One dot per catalog row that has both list prices. Green dots are labeled with the models on this page; hover any dot for name and prices. Upper-right means higher cost on both axes ($/1M).

Specifications

Each column header is the full model name. Tint marks the favorable value where we compute a winner.

Spec

R1 Distill Llama 70B

Llama 3.1 8B

Context window: 131,072 tokens; 128,000 tokens
Max output tokens: 131,072 tokens; 4,096 tokens
Vision: No; No
Function calling: No; Yes
Streaming: No; Yes
Release date: Jan 2025; Jul 2024

Cost calculator

Same requests, input tokens, and output tokens for both columns. Pick the provider row that matches how you buy.

R1 Distill Llama 70B

Llama 3.1 8B

Requests / day

Input tokens

Output tokens

R1 Distill Llama 70B

Monthly

$330

Annual

$4.0K

Llama 3.1 8B

Monthly

$14

Annual

$164

Save $317/month with Llama 3.1 8B

When to pick which

Short takeaways: no cards, just the points. Validate with your own workloads.

Long-context tasks
Use R1 Distill Llama 70B. Its 131K context window handles large codebases and documents better than 128K.
High-volume text generation
Use Llama 3.1 8B. Output tokens are 92% cheaper, which compounds significantly at scale.
Long output (reports, code files)
Use R1 Distill Llama 70B. Its 131K max output limit reduces the need to split requests.

Frequently asked questions

Llama 3.1 8B is cheaper on both input and output tokens.

More comparisons

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