DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-8B vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Wins 0 of 4 areas
—
Wins 3 of 4 areas
Coding · Long documents · Following instructions
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is the stronger all-rounder.
Scores updated · 16 tests both models report · How we compare
Where each one wins
Tests won in each of the four areas where both have results. Each piece is one test, so a longer bar means more evidence; grey means the two scored within a point of each other.
Coding, long documents and following instructions rest on a single test each.
What it costs
Prices per million tokens, roughly 750,000 words. The bars show the cost of a million tokens read plus a million written.
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs 30% less for the same work.
The biggest differences
The tests each model wins by the widest margin, up to three each. Scores are out of 100.
Where Llama 3.1 8B Instruct pulls ahead
- Follows unfamiliar, precisely checkable instructionsIFBench+11points ahead
- Code for real scientific research problemsSciCode+1.3points ahead
- Very hard expert questions across many subjectsHumanity's Last Exam+1.1points ahead
Where DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-8B pulls ahead
- Graduate-level biology, physics and chemistry questionsGPQA Diamond+4.3points ahead
Every test, side by side
All 16 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.
ReasoningEven
- GPQA DiamondDeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-8B by 4.330.225.9+4.3
- Humanity's Last ExamLlama 3.1 8B Instruct by 1.14.25.3+1.1
Long documentsLlama 3.1 8B Instruct
- AA-LCRLlama 3.1 8B Instruct by 18018+18
Following instructionsLlama 3.1 8B Instruct
- IFBenchLlama 3.1 8B Instruct by 1117.628.6+11
Other results11 tests, not counted
Tests outside the eight areas. They are not counted above: several are summary scores built from other tests, or the same test under another name.
- AttaQLlama 3.1 8B Instruct by 40.542.983.4+40.5
- Arena HardLlama 3.1 8B Instruct by 19.217.236.4+19.2
- HumanEval+Llama 3.1 8B Instruct by 17.362.980.2+17.3
- PopQALlama 3.1 8B Instruct by 15.513.328.8+15.5
- DROPLlama 3.1 8B Instruct by 9.849.759.5+9.8
- GSM8KLlama 3.1 8B Instruct by 7.672.279.8+7.6
- BigBenchHardLlama 3.1 8B Instruct by 667.473.4+6
- TruthfulQALlama 3.1 8B Instruct by 5.447.452.8+5.4
- AlpacaEval-2.0Llama 3.1 8B Instruct by 5.321.927.2+5.3
- HumanEvalLlama 3.1 8B Instruct by 5.167.572.6+5.1
- AA Intelligencetie6.56.9tie
Questions people ask
Which is better, DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-8B or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct wins three of the four areas where both have results: coding, long documents and following instructions. DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-8B wins none. They are level on reasoning.
Which is better for coding?
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct. It wins the one coding test both models report.
Which is cheaper?
DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-8B costs $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.05 per million output tokens; Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs $0.02 and $0.05. That makes Llama 3.1 8B Instruct about 30% cheaper for the same work.
How do you compare the two?
We use the 16 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 5 tests in the eight capability areas, and a gap under one point (ten on rating-style scales) counts as a tie. The other 11 are listed but not counted, because several are summary scores or repeat a test. Each score is the one shown on the model's own page.