---
title: "Compare alternatives to Llama 3.2 3B Instruct · Undominated.ai"
canonical: https://undominated.ai/alternatives/meta-llama__llama-3.2-3b-instruct/
description: "18 alternatives score at least as high as Llama 3.2 3B Instruct and cost no more under at least one listed workload. 11 preserve recorded capabilities; 7 have named trade-offs."
---

# Compare alternatives to Llama 3.2 3B Instruct · Undominated.ai

> 18 alternatives score at least as high as Llama 3.2 3B Instruct and cost no more under at least one listed workload. 11 preserve recorded capabilities; 7 have named trade-offs.

# Alternatives to Llama 3.2 3B Instruct

Meta · LMArena 1109.5 · $0.120/M on a balanced workload · prices as of 2026-10-06

 [Compare models](https://undominated.ai/compare/) Comparison context

Choose up to three standard models in Compare.

Requirements and prompt length apply in Compare. This page keeps its stated price basis and workload controls.

## 11 models are higher-scoring or cheaper, with neither dimension worse.

Of the 144 models carrying both an independent score and a published price at the same delivery mode, **18** score at least as high as Llama 3.2 3B Instruct and cost no more under at least one listed workload, with at least one of those dimensions improved. **11** match or beat its recorded context, maximum output, input modes, tool use and extended reasoning. **7** have a recorded capability loss, named on every row.

Dominance is not a property of a model. It is a property of a model, a capability lens and a workload, and all three are named on every row. Scores are LMArena Elo, used under CC BY 4.0 from the official dataset; prices are blended per million tokens. A higher score is not a drop-in replacement.

This page is built only while a candidate improves score or price without worsening the other under a listed workload. When that comparison no longer holds, it is not generated.

## Where it holds

| Workload | Llama 3.2 3B Instruct $/M | Recorded capabilities preserved | Recorded capability losses |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Balanced | $0.120 | 5 | 6 |
| Summarise | $0.064 | 5 | 4 |
| Chat | $0.162 | 8 | 7 |
| Code gen | $0.218 | 9 | 7 |
| Agentic | $0.092 | 10 | 5 |

Workload mixes are defined on the [methodology page](/methodology/). Cached input is priced at the cached rate, and reasoning tokens at the worse of the reasoning and output rates.

## What you would be replacing

| Intelligence | 1109.5 |
| --- | --- |
| Context window | 131K |
| Max output | 117K |
| Input modes | text |
| Tool use | no |
| Extended reasoning | no |

Preserving recorded capabilities requires matching or beating these fields. [Full record for Llama 3.2 3B Instruct](/models/meta-llama__llama-3.2-3b-instruct/), or [check Llama 3.2 3B Instruct against the whole catalogue](/check/meta-llama__llama-3.2-3b-instruct/).

## Recorded capabilities preserved 11

Each option has a higher score or a lower price, with neither dimension worse under the listed workloads. It matches or beats Llama 3.2 3B Instruct on recorded context, maximum output, input modes, tool use and extended reasoning.

| # | Model | Intelligence | $/M | Holds under |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | [DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423](/models/deepseek__deepseek-v4-flash/) DeepSeek | 1432.1 +322.6 | $0.113 | Balanced −6% Chat −36% Code gen −37% Agentic −34% |
| 2 | [gpt-oss-120b](/models/openai__gpt-oss-120b/) OpenAI | 1365.4 +255.9 | $0.065 | Balanced −46% Summarise −42% Chat −47% Code gen −48% Agentic −45% |
| 3 | [Gemma 3 27B](/models/google__gemma-3-27b-it/) Google | 1357.8 +248.3 | $0.100 | Balanced −17% Chat −31% Code gen −41% Agentic same price |
| 4 | [Granite 4.2 8B](/models/ibm-granite__granite-4.2-8b/) IBM | 1317.8 +208.3 | $0.108 | Balanced −10% Summarise −11% Chat −24% Code gen −22% Agentic −33% |
| 5 | [Llama 3.1 8B Instruct](/models/meta-llama__llama-3.1-8b-instruct/) Meta | 1186.5 +77 | $0.025 | Balanced −79% Summarise −67% Chat −83% Code gen −85% Agentic −75% |
| 6 | [MiMo-V2.6-Flash](/models/xiaomi__mimo-v2.6-flash/) Xiaomi | 1456.4 +346.9 | $0.155 chat | Chat −4% Code gen −2% Agentic −14% |
| 7 | [Gemma 4 26B A4B](/models/google__gemma-4-26b-a4b-it/) Google | 1433.9 +324.4 | $0.149 chat | Chat −8% Code gen −6% Agentic −13% |
| 8 | [MiMo-V2.5](/models/xiaomi__mimo-v2.5/) Xiaomi | 1427.5 +318 | $0.155 chat | Chat −4% Code gen −2% Agentic −14% |
| 9 | [Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507](/models/qwen__qwen3-30b-a3b-instruct-2507/) Qwen | 1384.1 +274.6 | $0.216 code gen | Code gen −1% |
| 10 | [GLM 4.7 Flash](/models/z-ai__glm-4.7-flash/) Z.ai | 1350.9 +241.4 | $0.063 summarise | Summarise −2% Agentic −12% |
| 11 | [GPT-5 Nano](/models/openai__gpt-5-nano/) OpenAI | 1320 +210.5 | $0.055 summarise | Summarise −15% Agentic −18% |

## Alternatives with recorded capability losses 7

These improve score or price without worsening the other under the listed workloads, but reduce at least one recorded capability. Read the last column before switching.

| Model | Intelligence | $/M | Holds under | Recorded capability loss |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Qwen3.5-Flash](/models/qwen__qwen3.5-flash-02-23/) Qwen | 1397 +287.5 | $0.114 | Balanced −5% Chat −12% Code gen −17% | 118K → 66K max output |
| [Gemma 3 12B](/models/google__gemma-3-12b-it/) Google | 1334.2 +224.7 | $0.075 | Balanced −38% Summarise −14% Chat −44% Code gen −50% Agentic −29% | 118K → 16K max output |
| [Gemma 3 4B](/models/google__gemma-3-4b-it/) Google | 1290.8 +181.3 | $0.063 | Balanced −48% Summarise −18% Chat −57% Code gen −63% Agentic −38% | 118K → 16K max output |
| [gpt-oss-20b](/models/openai__gpt-oss-20b/) OpenAI | 1287.7 +178.2 | $0.036 | Balanced −70% Summarise −70% Chat −73% Code gen −72% Agentic −75% | 118K → 33K max output |
| [Mistral Small 3](/models/mistralai__mistral-small-24b-instruct-2501/) Mistral | 1233.6 +124.1 | $0.058 | Balanced −52% Summarise −20% Chat −62% Code gen −69% Agentic −41% | 131K → 33K context 118K → 16K max output |
| [Phi 4](/models/microsoft__phi-4/) Microsoft | 1216.7 +107.2 | $0.088 | Balanced −27% Chat −40% Code gen −49% Agentic −13% | 131K → 16K context 118K → 15K max output |
| [Qwen3 32B](/models/qwen__qwen3-32b/) Qwen | 1340.1 +230.6 | $0.160 chat | Chat −1% Code gen −8% | 118K → 16K max output |

## What this compares, and what it leaves out

 - Quality is LMArena Elo, used under CC BY 4.0 from the official dataset. The 95% confidence interval on a difference between two scores is about ±10.47 points, so a gap smaller than that is marked *tie* rather than an improvement — see [significance bands](/significance/).
 - 204 further models at this delivery mode carry a price but no independent score. They are absent from the comparison in both directions — unrated is not a zero, and an unmeasured model is neither an alternative nor a worse buy.
 - Retired models are never offered as an alternative, and a model only competes against its own delivery mode: batch trades latency for price, so it is not a like-for-like swap.
 - Nothing here measures latency, throughput, rate limits or how a model behaves on your prompts. Two models with the same index score are not interchangeable.
 - Models with no higher-scoring or cheaper alternative that is no worse on the other axis are on the [value frontier](/frontier/). Models with such an alternative are [listed here](/alternatives/).

## Continue your investigation

 - [Check requirements](/check/)
- [Compare exact differences](/compare/)
- [Set a quality floor](/cheapest-at/)
- [Inspect tier boundaries](/cliffs/)