The honest, $0-markup cost to run Llama 3.1 8B Instruct (Meta, 8B) and Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 (Mistral AI, 7.2B), side by side — free on your own machine, on your own rented GPU at the vendor's price, or via your own API key.
| Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Parameters | 8B | 7.2B |
| Context window | 131.1K | 32.8K |
| License | Commercial OK | Commercial OK |
| VRAM to run | ~8.0 GB (Q4_K_M) | ~8.0 GB (Q4_K_M) |
| Rent a GPU | $0.26/hr | $0.26/hr |
| Your API key | $0.03/1M | $0.20/1M (last-known) |
VRAM, size, context and license are facts from the catalog and the shared cost engine; API prices are real where we have them (labeled "est." otherwise). We don't rank model quality or quote benchmarks here.
Full cost breakdown: Llama 3.1 8B Instruct →
Full cost breakdown: Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 →
Open the free Spanvero advisor → to compare them live for your exact workload and hardware.
Spanvero · All comparisons · Prices as of 2026-06-17. $0 markup, your own accounts, we never resell compute. © 2026 Cynosure LLC.