--- title: "Is Llama 3.2 1B Instruct still undominated? · Undominated.ai" canonical: https://undominated.ai/check/meta-llama__llama-3.2-1b-instruct/ description: "Llama 3.2 1B Instruct: whether it is still undominated. If anything in this catalogue is both better and cheaper, it is named, as of Sep 23, 2026. Unrated stays unrated." --- # Is Llama 3.2 1B Instruct still undominated? · Undominated.ai > Llama 3.2 1B Instruct: whether it is still undominated. If anything in this catalogue is both better and cheaper, it is named, as of Sep 23, 2026. Unrated stays unrated. # Is Llama 3.2 1B Instruct a good deal? Whether anything in this catalogue beats Llama 3.2 1B Instruct on both quality and price, and what you give up if it does. A computation on the current catalogue, not an opinion. 13 undominated of 136 · Sep 23, 2026 [1 · Choose & set workload](#check-input)[2 · Read verdict](#check-verdict)[3 · Inspect alternatives](#check-options) As of Sep 23, 2026, Llama 3.2 1B Instruct is dominated for Balanced on LMArena. Llama 3.1 8B Instruct scores 132.0 higher and costs 18% less, with a covering envelope. 13 of 136 rated, priced standard models are undominated. [Inspect model evidence](/models/meta-llama__llama-3.2-1b-instruct/) [Compare differences & requirements](/compare/?models=meta-llama%2Fllama-3.2-1b-instruct%2Cmeta-llama%2Fllama-3.1-8b-instruct) Current model Llama 3.2 1B Instruct Balanced 3 tokens in per 1 out Balanced Summarise Chat Code gen Agentic Monthly spend (USD) Used only to say how many months a named switching cost would take to earn back. Leave blank to skip. Switching cost (USD) Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is both better and cheaper than Llama 3.2 1B Instruct: 132.0 points higher on LMArena and 18% less per million tokens, $0.01 cheaper at this mix. [Llama 3.2 1B Instruct](https://undominated.ai/models/meta-llama__llama-3.2-1b-instruct/) LMArena Elo · higher is better Scale starts at 1040 Elo ** 1054.5 Effective $/M · Balanced · lower is better ** $0.071/M [Llama 3.1 8B Instruct](https://undominated.ai/models/meta-llama__llama-3.1-8b-instruct/) LMArena Elo · higher is better Scale starts at 1040 Elo ** 1186.5 Effective $/M · Balanced · lower is better ** $0.058/M Llama 3.2 1B Instruct takes text, returns up to 54,000 tokens from a 60,000-token context, and is listed by 1 seller. Compared against 136 rated, priced models on this lens: 1 model dominates it and gives up nothing, 3 more dominate it but give something up. Llama 3.2 1B Instruct scores 1054.5 at $0.07 per million tokens for this mix. ## Envelope-safe replacements Each row scores at least as high, costs no more, and covers this model’s context, output, modalities, tools, and reasoning. A cheaper narrower model is not listed here. | Model | LMArena | Effective $/M | You save | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Llama 3.1 8B Instruct](/models/meta-llama__llama-3.1-8b-instruct/) | 1186.5 +132.0 | $0.058/M | 18% | ## Higher score, lower price, named losses Not a drop-in. The loss is why these are not a recommendation. | Model | LMArena | Effective $/M | You give up | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Gemma 3 4B](/models/google__gemma-3-4b-it/) | 1290.7 | $0.063/M | max output | | [gpt-oss-20b](/models/openai__gpt-oss-20b/) | 1287.3 | $0.036/M | max output | | [Mistral Small 3](/models/mistralai__mistral-small-24b-instruct-2501/) | 1233.5 | $0.058/M | context, max output | 136 rated, priced standard models. Chartreuse is the frontier. Cobalt is the model you named, when it is not on the staircase. Copy watch URL [Open the frontier](/frontier/) The link keeps the model and mix, using the current catalogue. Monthly spend and switching cost stay in this browser tab and are left out of the link. ## Saved decision references Save the model, workload, catalogue date and capability-preservation rule in this browser. Spend, switching cost and bill contents are not saved. No account or notifications. Constraint: replacements must preserve the model’s capabilities; any losses remain named trade-offs. Historical decisions cannot be fully replayed from saved references: past prices, scores and capability evidence are not stored. Save this reference ## Continue your investigation - [Build a shortlist](/compare/) - [Inspect alternatives](/alternatives/) - [Check billing conditions](/traps/) - [Read model evidence](/models/)