# Llama 3.1-8B vs Qwen Plus

> Qwen Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.7 to 22.8 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.1-8B costs 10× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen Plus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/llama-3-1-8b-vs-qwen-plus
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 18

## Summary

- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Llama 3.1-8B scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen Plus in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen Plus leads 52.4 to 29.9.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is MATH Level 5: 22.9% for Llama 3.1-8B and 65.3% for Qwen Plus.
- Llama 3.1-8B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.40 / $1.20 for Qwen Plus.
- Qwen Plus accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 128K.
- Llama 3.1-8B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Llama 3.1-8B | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Meta | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 22.8 | 36.7 |
| Rank | 347 | 204 |
| Context | 128K | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $0.40 |
| Output $/M | $0.08 | $1.20 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Llama 3.1-8B: 19.9 (#335)
- Qwen Plus: 38.3 (#163)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1195 | 1328 |
| SciCode | 13.2% | — |
| WeirdML | 1.7% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 32.8% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 40.5% | — |
| HumanEval+ | 62.8% | — |
| MBPP+ | 55.6% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Llama 3.1-8B: 22.3 (#123)
- Qwen Plus: —

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 25.8% | — |
| BALROG | 15.1% | — |

## Reasoning

- Llama 3.1-8B: 14.5 (#316)
- Qwen Plus: 27.6 (#101)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1175 | 1317 |
| DTBench | 50.9% | 81.1% |
| LMCA | 5.4% | 24% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 63.3% |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 116.48 | — |
| PIQA | 81.2% | — |

## Math

- Llama 3.1-8B: 9.5 (#311)
- Qwen Plus: 22.0 (#266)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 1.7% | 17.8% |
| LMArena Math | 1179 | 1326 |
| MATH Level 5 | 22.9% | 65.3% |
| Omni-MATH | 13.7% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 1.7% |
| GSM8K | 82.4% | — |

## Knowledge

- Llama 3.1-8B: 8.0 (#302)
- Qwen Plus: 27.4 (#245)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 27% | 48.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1144 | 1328 |
| MMLU-Pro | 40.6% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 24.7% | — |
| BoolQ | 82.8% | — |
| MMLU | 56.1% | — |

## Multilingual

- Llama 3.1-8B: 34.2 (#244)
- Qwen Plus: 45.3 (#170)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1148 | 1310 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1151 | 1347 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1061 | 1251 |
| LMArena Russian | 1158 | 1323 |
| LMArena French | 1176 | — |
| LMArena German | 1144 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1053 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1169 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Llama 3.1-8B: 59.1 (#253)
- Qwen Plus: 69.0 (#176)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1159 | 1303 |
| IFEval | 74.3% | — |

## Long Context

- Llama 3.1-8B: 35.8 (#233)
- Qwen Plus: 40.3 (#153)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1182 | 1325 |

## Writing & Preference

- Llama 3.1-8B: 29.9 (#285)
- Qwen Plus: 52.4 (#171)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1187 | 1326 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1154 | 1293 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1172 | 1336 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 713 | — |
| WildBench | 68.7% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Llama 3.1-8B better than Qwen Plus?

Qwen Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.7 to 22.8 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.1-8B costs 10× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen Plus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Llama 3.1-8B or Qwen Plus?

Llama 3.1-8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Qwen Plus lists at $0.40 and $1.20.

### Is Llama 3.1-8B or Qwen Plus better for coding?

Qwen Plus scores higher on coding benchmarks: 38.3 versus 19.9 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen Plus does, with 1M tokens against 128K.

### How many benchmarks do Llama 3.1-8B and Qwen Plus share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Llama 3.1-8B has 43 scored results on Noometry and Qwen Plus has 20.