--- title: "Is Llama 3.3 70B Instruct still undominated? · Undominated.ai" canonical: https://undominated.ai/check/meta-llama__llama-3.3-70b-instruct/ description: "Llama 3.3 70B 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 3.3 70B Instruct still undominated? · Undominated.ai > Llama 3.3 70B 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 3.3 70B Instruct a good deal? Whether anything in this catalogue beats Llama 3.3 70B 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 3.3 70B Instruct is dominated for Balanced on LMArena. Gemma 4 31B scores 167.7 higher and costs 2% less, with a covering envelope. 13 of 136 rated, priced standard models are undominated. [Inspect model evidence](/models/meta-llama__llama-3.3-70b-instruct/) [Compare differences & requirements](/compare/?models=meta-llama%2Fllama-3.3-70b-instruct%2Cgoogle%2Fgemma-4-31b-it) Current model Llama 3.3 70B 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) Gemma 4 31B is both better and cheaper than Llama 3.3 70B Instruct: 167.7 points higher on LMArena and 2% less per million tokens, $0.00 cheaper at this mix. [Llama 3.3 70B Instruct](https://undominated.ai/models/meta-llama__llama-3.3-70b-instruct/) LMArena Elo · higher is better Scale starts at 1040 Elo ** 1274.0 Effective $/M · Balanced · lower is better ** $0.155/M [Gemma 4 31B](https://undominated.ai/models/google__gemma-4-31b-it/) LMArena Elo · higher is better Scale starts at 1040 Elo ** 1441.7 Effective $/M · Balanced · lower is better ** $0.153/M Llama 3.3 70B Instruct takes text, returns up to 16,384 tokens from a 131,072-token context, and is listed by 11 sellers. Compared against 136 rated, priced models on this lens: 14 models dominate it and give up nothing, 1 more dominates it but gives something up. Llama 3.3 70B Instruct scores 1274 at $0.16 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Gemma 4 31B](/models/google__gemma-4-31b-it/) | 1441.7 +167.7 | $0.153/M | 2% | | [Hy3](/models/tencent__hy3/) | 1440.6 +166.6 | $0.144/M | 7% | | [Gemma 4 26B A4B](/models/google__gemma-4-26b-a4b-it/) | 1434.5 +160.5 | $0.143/M | 8% | | [DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423](/models/deepseek__deepseek-v4-flash/) | 1431.8 +157.8 | $0.103/M | 33% | | [Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507](/models/qwen__qwen3-235b-a22b-2507/) | 1419.8 +145.8 | $0.153/M | 1% | | [Step 3.5 Flash](/models/stepfun__step-3.5-flash/) | 1403.7 +129.7 | $0.150/M | 3% | | [Qwen3.5-Flash](/models/qwen__qwen3.5-flash-02-23/) | 1397.7 +123.7 | $0.114/M | 27% | | [Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507](/models/qwen__qwen3-30b-a3b-instruct-2507/) | 1383.6 +109.6 | $0.084/M | 46% | | [GLM 4.7 Flash](/models/z-ai__glm-4.7-flash/) | 1352.2 +78.2 | $0.145/M | 6% | | [Qwen3 32B](/models/qwen__qwen3-32b/) | 1340.0 +66.0 | $0.130/M | 16% | | [Gemma 3 12B](/models/google__gemma-3-12b-it/) | 1334.2 +60.2 | $0.075/M | 52% | | [GPT-5 Nano](/models/openai__gpt-5-nano/) | 1319.7 +45.7 | $0.138/M | 11% | | [Granite 4.2 8B](/models/ibm-granite__granite-4.2-8b/) | 1316.8 +42.8 | $0.107/M | 31% | | [gpt-oss-20b](/models/openai__gpt-oss-20b/) | 1287.3 +13.3 | $0.036/M | 77% | ## 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 | tools | 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/)