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Every score has a dated snapshot.

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  3. Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Llama 3.1 405B

Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 1, 2026

Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Llama 3.1 405B benchmark

In this head-to-head showdown, Llama 3.1 405B delivers higher overall intelligence and human-preferred responses (Elo 1,370 vs 1,280), while Llama 3.1 405B leads in SWE-bench software engineering benchmarks (58.4%), while Llama 3.1 405B is more budget-friendly at $3.5/1M per 1M output tokens, while Claude 3.5 Sonnet provides faster response streaming (80 tok/s). Review the complete breakdown below to determine which model best fits your performance and budget requirements.

Executive Comparison Verdict

Bottom Line: Llama 3.1 405B holds the advantage over Claude 3.5 Sonnet in overall benchmark performance and human evaluation rankings. Choose Llama 3.1 405B for demanding workloads, or review the breakdown below to compare coding and pricing metrics.
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Verified Head-to-Head Advantage Breakdown

9 direct benchmark disciplines evaluated across capability, speed, and cost

Claude 3.5 Sonnet (3)Llama 3.1 405B (6)
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
3 of 9 Wins
✓Time to first token✓Output speed✓Context window
Llama 3.1 405B
6 of 9 Wins
✓Preference Elo✓LiveBench✓SWE-bench✓GPQA Diamond✓Input price✓Output price
Anthropic
Leads 3 of 9 metrics
Claude 3.5 Sonnet

2024 workhorse. Still a high-intent compare against GPT-4o.

Elo 1,280$15/1M out
Meta
Leads 6 of 9 metrics
Llama 3.1 405B

Meta flagship open-weight 405B dense foundation model with 128k context window.

Elo 1,370$3.5/1M out
Top Rival Showdowns for Claude 3.5 Sonnet
All Matchups
Compare vs:vs GPT-5vs Gemini 3 Provs Grok 4.6vs DeepSeek V4 Provs Qwen 3 Max
Preference LeaderLlama 3.1 405B Wins

Llama 3.1 405B

Δ 90 Arena Elo pts

Throughput LeaderClaude 3.5 Sonnet Wins

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

80 tok/s

Value per Dollar LeaderLlama 3.1 405B Wins

Llama 3.1 405B

$3.5 / 1M output

Capability Percentiles

Relative percentile scores computed across all active models in the benchmark catalog.

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Leaders Matchup Capability Radar

Comparing top Western standard models with China's leading frontier rival across 6 skill dimensions. Tap any spoke or dot to inspect.

Tap any node to inspect
Percentile 0–100
Head-to-Head Comparison

Overall Matchup Breakdown

Category wins across reasoning intelligence, generation speed, and token cost.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet (3)vsLlama 3.1 405B (7)
Claude 3.5 Sonnet: 3W (30%)Overall: Llama 3.1 405BLlama 3.1 405B: 7W (70%)
← Claude 3.5 SonnetLlama 3.1 405B →
🏆Llama 3.1 405B(5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Benchmark
Claude 3.5 SonnetvsLlama 3.1 405B
Preference Elo
1,280vs1,370+90
Coding Elo
—vs1,385
SWE-bench
49%vs58.4%+9.4%
LiveBench
52.1%vs61.2%+9.1%
GPQA Diamond
65%vs75.2%+10.2%
Claude 3.5 Sonnet: 0WLlama 3.1 405B: 5W
🏆Claude 3.5 Sonnet(2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Benchmark
Claude 3.5 SonnetvsLlama 3.1 405B
Output speed
80 tok/svs42 tok/s+38 tok/s
Time to first token
280 msvs360 ms+80 ms
Claude 3.5 Sonnet: 2WLlama 3.1 405B: 0W
🏆Llama 3.1 405B(2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Benchmark
Claude 3.5 SonnetvsLlama 3.1 405B
Output price
$15/1Mvs$3.5/1M+$11.5/1M
Input price
$3/1Mvs$1.25/1M+$1.75/1M
Context window
200kvs128k+72k
Claude 3.5 Sonnet: 1WLlama 3.1 405B: 2W

Side-by-Side Benchmark Matrix

Preference Elo+90
Claude 3.5 Sonnet1,280
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Llama 3.1 405B1,370
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Coding Elo
Claude 3.5 Sonnet—
Llama 3.1 405B1,385
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
LiveBench+9.1%
Claude 3.5 Sonnet52.1%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Llama 3.1 405B61.2%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
SWE-bench+9.4%
Claude 3.5 Sonnet49%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Llama 3.1 405B58.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
GPQA Diamond+10.2%
Claude 3.5 Sonnet65%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Llama 3.1 405B75.2%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Time to first token+80 ms
Claude 3.5 Sonnet280 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Llama 3.1 405B360 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Output speed+38 tok/s
Claude 3.5 Sonnet80 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Llama 3.1 405B42 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Input price+$1.75/1M
Claude 3.5 Sonnet$3/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Llama 3.1 405B$1.25/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Output price+$11.5/1M
Claude 3.5 Sonnet$15/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Llama 3.1 405B$3.5/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Context window+72k
Claude 3.5 Sonnet200k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Llama 3.1 405B128k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetLlama 3.1 405BAdvantage Delta
Preference Elo
1,280
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
1,370
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+90
Coding Elo—
1,385
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
—
LiveBench
52.1%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
61.2%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+9.1%
SWE-bench
49%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
58.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+9.4%
GPQA Diamond
65%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
75.2%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+10.2%
Time to first token
280 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
360 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+80 ms
Output speed
80 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
42 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+38 tok/s
Input price
$3/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
$1.25/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+$1.75/1M
Output price
$15/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
$3.5/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+$11.5/1M
Context window
200k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
128k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+72k
Interactive Simulator (USD)

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs in USD (US Dollar).

Save up to 71% with Llama 3.1 405B
Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo
Quick Presets:
Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out
RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)
Claude 3.5 Sonnet$330.00 / mo
In: $105Out: $225
Llama 3.1 405B$96.25 / mo
In: $43.75Out: $52.5
Estimated Cost Delta

Llama 3.1 405B is estimated to save $233.75/month ($2,805/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

  • 1
    Llama 3.1 405B:Pick Llama 3.1 405B when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
  • 2
    Claude 3.5 Sonnet:Pick Claude 3.5 Sonnet when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.
  • 3
    Llama 3.1 405B:Pick Llama 3.1 405B as the default general assistant.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsLlama 3.1 405B

Higher SWE-bench (58.4%).

High-volume chatLlama 3.1 405B

Lower output list price ($3.5/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIClaude 3.5 Sonnet

Lower TTFT (280 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude 3.5 Sonnet

Larger window (200k).

Screenshots / visionClaude 3.5 Sonnet

Claude 3.5 Sonnet is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target WorkloadRecommended PickEvaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agentsLlama 3.1 405BHigher SWE-bench (58.4%).
High-volume chatLlama 3.1 405BLower output list price ($3.5/1M).
Voice / low-latency UIClaude 3.5 SonnetLower TTFT (280 ms).
Long-document RAGClaude 3.5 SonnetLarger window (200k).
Screenshots / visionClaude 3.5 SonnetClaude 3.5 Sonnet is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.
Community Sentiment

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CompareLLM AI Matrix

Verified Head-to-Head Telemetry

LIVE BENCHMARK
VS
Anthropic

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

Elo 1,280
SWE-bench49%
Speed (tok/s)80 tok/s
Input / 1M Tokens$3/1M
Output / 1M Tokens$15/1M
Meta

Llama 3.1 405B

Elo 1,370
SWE-bench58.4%
Speed (tok/s)42 tok/s
Input / 1M Tokens$1.25/1M
Output / 1M Tokens$3.5/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Llama 3.1 405B?
Llama 3.1 405B has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,370). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Llama 3.1 405B?
Llama 3.1 405B leads SWE-bench at 58.4% vs 49%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?
Llama 3.1 405B output tokens are $3.5/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Llama 3.1 405B?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet has the lower time-to-first-token (280 ms vs 360 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet accepts 200k tokens versus 128k.
Can I self-host either model?
Llama 3.1 405B is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?
No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?
Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Llama 3.1 405B Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Claude 3.5 Sonnet matchups →|All Llama 3.1 405B matchups →
Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet (next sonnet)Llama 3.1 405B vs Llama 3.1 70B (next llama)Claude Opus 4.5 vs Llama 3.1 405BClaude Opus 4.6 vs Llama 3.1 405BClaude Sonnet 4.5 vs Llama 3.1 405BLlama 4 Maverick vs Llama 3.1 405B