The honest, $0-markup cost to run Llama 3.1 8B Instruct (Meta, 8B) and Qwen3-8B (Alibaba, 8.2B), 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 | Qwen3-8B | |
|---|---|---|
| Parameters | 8B | 8.2B |
| Context window | ✓ 131.1K | 41K |
| License | Commercial OK | Commercial OK |
| VRAM to run | ✓ ~8.0 GB (Q4_K_M) | ~9.0 GB (Q4_K_M) |
| Rent a GPU | $0.06/hr | $0.06/hr |
| Your API key | ✓ $0.07/1M | $0.29/1M |
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: Qwen3-8B →
Open the free Spanvero advisor → to compare them live for your exact workload and hardware.
Spanvero · All comparisons · Prices as of 2026-07-27. $0 markup, your own accounts, we never resell compute. © 2026 Cynosure LLC.
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