Model comparison

Llama 3.1-70B vs o3-mini

o3-mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.7 to 29.6 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.1-70B costs 4.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when o3-mini's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 24 shared benchmarks.

Llama 3.1-70B Meta

29.6

Rank #308 Confirmed

o3-mini OpenAI

36.7

Rank #212 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 24 benchmarks with published results for both. Llama 3.1-70B scores higher in 2 categories and o3-mini in 7 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in writing & preference, where o3-mini leads 50.3 to 35.4.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 3.6% for Llama 3.1-70B and 76.9% for o3-mini.
  • Llama 3.1-70B is cheaper at $0.40 / $0.40 per million input/output tokens, against $1.10 / $4.40 for o3-mini.
  • o3-mini accepts more context: 200K tokens versus 128K.
  • Llama 3.1-70B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Llama 3.1-70B and o3-mini specifications
Llama 3.1-70Bo3-mini
ProviderMetaOpenAI
Noometry Index29.636.7
Released2024-07-232024-12-20
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window128K200K
Max output4K100K
Input $ / M tokens$0.40$1.10
Output $ / M tokens$0.40$4.40
Results tracked3551

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Category by category

Coding o3-mini leads

Llama 3.1-70B: 30.3 (#296), o3-mini: 40.8 (#132)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkLlama 3.1-70Bo3-mini
WeirdML9%43.7%
LMArena Coding12601378
Aider Polyglot—60.4%
SciCode—39.8%
GSO—1.3%
BigCodeBench Instruct46.1%—
LiveBench Coding—82.7%
BigCodeBench Complete54.8%—
CadEval—54%

Agentic & Tool Use o3-mini leads

Llama 3.1-70B: 25.1 (#112), o3-mini: 29.6 (#84)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkLlama 3.1-70Bo3-mini
TheAgentCompany6.9%—
Cybench—22.5%
BALROG27.9%—

Reasoning Llama 3.1-70B leads

Llama 3.1-70B: 21.6 (#220), o3-mini: 16.3 (#305)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkLlama 3.1-70Bo3-mini
LMArena Hard Prompts12411366
DTBench60%68.8%
LMCA14.8%19%
Epoch Capabilities Index125.92140.34
ARC-AGI-2—3%
SimpleBench—22.8%
ARC-AGI-1—34.5%
CritPt—0.3%
Chess Puzzles—17%
LiveBench Reasoning—89.6%
Mystery Game Puzzles—7%
LiveBench Data Analysis—70.6%
ForecastBench—59.6
LiveBench—75.9%

Math o3-mini leads

Llama 3.1-70B: 13.5 (#304), o3-mini: 28.1 (#244)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkLlama 3.1-70Bo3-mini
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-20253.6%76.9%
LMArena Math12521396
MATH Level 536.7%96.5%
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)—18.6%
FrontierMath Tier 4—0%
Omni-MATH21%—
LiveBench Math—77.3%
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)—12.4%
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)—4.2%

Knowledge o3-mini leads

Llama 3.1-70B: 24.2 (#269), o3-mini: 38.3 (#146)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkLlama 3.1-70Bo3-mini
GPQA Diamond44.2%77%
LMArena Expert12091364
SimpleQA Verified—15.3%
MMLU-Pro65.3%—
Confabulations—17.9%
GPQA (HELM)42.6%—
MMLU80.1%—

Multilingual o3-mini leads

Llama 3.1-70B: 38.8 (#225), o3-mini: 45.7 (#164)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkLlama 3.1-70Bo3-mini
LMArena Non-English12191319
LMArena Chinese12151379
LMArena French12611334
LMArena German12221303
LMArena Japanese11321286
LMArena Korean11401314
LMArena Russian12341304
LMArena Spanish12531321

Instruction Following o3-mini leads

Llama 3.1-70B: 65.3 (#223), o3-mini: 75.1 (#72)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkLlama 3.1-70Bo3-mini
LMArena Instruction Following12311337
LiveBench Instruction Following—84.4%
IFEval82.1%—

Long Context Llama 3.1-70B leads

Llama 3.1-70B: 37.6 (#214), o3-mini: 33.8 (#256)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkLlama 3.1-70Bo3-mini
LMArena Longer Query12411343
Fiction.LiveBench—50%

Writing & Preference o3-mini leads

Llama 3.1-70B: 35.4 (#267), o3-mini: 50.3 (#182)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkLlama 3.1-70Bo3-mini
LMArena Text12611337
LMArena Creative Writing12321286
LMArena Multi-Turn12561320
Short-Story Creative Writing—61.7%
EQ-Bench Creative Writing784—
WildBench75.8%—
LiveBench Language—50.7%

Frequently asked questions

Is Llama 3.1-70B better than o3-mini?

o3-mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.7 to 29.6 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.1-70B costs 4.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when o3-mini's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Llama 3.1-70B or o3-mini?

Llama 3.1-70B is cheaper. It lists at $0.40 per million input tokens and $0.40 per million output tokens; o3-mini lists at $1.10 and $4.40.

Is Llama 3.1-70B or o3-mini better for coding?

o3-mini scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.8 versus 30.3 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

o3-mini does, with 200K tokens against 128K.

How many benchmarks do Llama 3.1-70B and o3-mini share?

24 benchmarks have published results for both models. Llama 3.1-70B has 35 scored results on Noometry and o3-mini has 51.

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