Llama 3.1 8B

What Llama 3.1 8B is and who makes it

Llama 3.1 8B is the smallest model in the Llama 3.1 release from Meta, published on July 23, 2024. It has 8 billion parameters, reads and writes text, and has a context window of 128K tokens according to Meta's model card. Its training data ends in December 2023. The weights are downloadable under the Llama 3.1 Community License.

Llama 3.1 came in three sizes: 8B, 70B and 405B. The 405B model was Meta's largest openly available model at the time, while the 8B version was built to be quick and cheap to run. The 3.1 release also brought the longer 128K context to the smaller models and a license that explicitly allows using Llama's outputs to improve other models, for example to create training data.

In our chat, Llama 3.1 8B is the fastest and lightest option. Llama.Online is an independent site, not run by Meta; the model runs on a cloud inference provider and our site passes your messages to it.

Where it sits in the Llama family

Think of the four models in our chat as a ladder. Llama 3.1 8B is the quick, light step at the bottom. Llama 3.3 70B is a much larger text model with more knowledge and nuance. Llama 4 Scout and Llama 4 Maverick are the newest generation and also read images. Even smaller Llama models exist too: Llama 3.2 1B and 3B were made for phones and small devices, but they are not in our chat. The complete timeline is on Llama history.

What Llama 3.1 8B is good at

• Quick answers. Definitions, simple explanations, unit conversions and short how-to questions.
• Rewriting short text. Make a message friendlier, shorter or more formal; fix grammar in a paragraph.
• Short drafts. A social post, a product blurb, a polite reply, a list of title ideas.
• Simple sorting and extraction. Pull names and dates from a paragraph, tag feedback as positive or negative, turn notes into a list.
• Running on your own computer. It is one of the easiest Llama models to run locally. Ollama lists its download at 4.9 GB, small enough for many laptops.

Eight languages are officially supported: English, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Hindi, Spanish and Thai.

How to use it in our chat

1. Open the chat with the link below, or choose Llama 3.1 8B in the model menu.
2. Keep requests short and specific. Give an example of the output you want if the format matters.
3. If an answer looks shallow or wrong, regenerate it with a bigger model such as Llama 3.3 70B or Maverick.

Chat with Llama 3.1 8B

The chat is free within a daily allowance of messages, currently 100 per day. Images need a Llama 4 model, so attaching one switches the chat to Maverick.

Limits to know about

• Smaller model, more mistakes. With 8 billion parameters it knows less than larger models and makes factual errors more often, especially about niche topics, people and numbers. Treat its facts as a starting point to check.
• Harder reasoning. Multi-step math, tricky logic and long code are better handled by Llama 3.3 70B or Llama 4.
• Text only. It cannot read images.
• Old knowledge. Its training data ends in December 2023, and our chat has no web access.
• Long documents. The model supports 128K tokens, but our free chat trims long conversations to the most recent part, and a small model is more likely to miss details in long text anyway.

Getting Llama 3.1 8B officially

Meta publishes the weights on Hugging Face as meta-llama/Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct; accept the license on the model page to unlock the files. The easiest local route is Ollama: install it and run ollama run llama3.1, which downloads the 8B version by default. LM Studio and llama.cpp work as well; see run Llama locally.

Through cloud APIs it is one of the cheapest models around: OpenRouter lists it at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens (OpenRouter list price, Oct 2026), with a context window of 131,072 tokens at our provider. Our Llama API guide shows how to call it.

The Llama 3.1 Community License allows commercial use with conditions: follow the acceptable use policy, show "Built with Llama" in your product, start the names of fine-tuned models you share with "Llama", and get a separate license from Meta if your products had more than 700 million monthly active users. See our license page.

Privacy notes

In our chat, your messages pass through our server and AI gateway to the inference provider that runs the model. We do not store your message text, and your history stays in your browser. Because Llama 3.1 8B is small enough to run on a laptop, it is also a popular choice when you want answers without sending anything over the internet at all.

How Llama 3.1 8B compares

Against Llama 3.3 70B it is far faster and cheaper but less knowledgeable and less careful. Against Llama 4 it lacks images and newer knowledge. Against tiny models such as Llama 3.2 3B it is more capable but needs more memory. If you are unsure, our guide on choosing the right Llama model walks through typical tasks, and Llama 3.3 vs Llama 4 compares the bigger options.

FAQ

Why would I pick the smallest model?

Speed. For short, simple tasks it answers quickly and is usually good enough. Switch to a bigger model when accuracy or depth matters.

Can I run Llama 3.1 8B on my laptop?

Often yes. The Ollama download is about 4.9 GB. It runs best with enough free memory and a recent graphics chip or Apple silicon, but it also works more slowly on many ordinary computers.

Is Llama 3.1 8B the same as Llama 3 8B?

No. Llama 3 8B came out in April 2024 with an 8K context window; Llama 3.1 8B followed in July 2024 with a 128K context window and eight officially supported languages.

Does it know recent events?

No. Its training data ends in December 2023, and our chat cannot search the web.