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© 2026 CompareLLM. Public benchmark data aggregated from Arena Elo, LiveBench, SWE-bench & OpenRouter.

Every score has a dated snapshot.

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  3. Claude 3 Opus vs Llama 3.1 405B

Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 1, 2026

Claude 3 Opus 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 1,248), 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 Opus provides faster response streaming (48 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 Opus 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 Opus (2)Llama 3.1 405B (7)
Claude 3 Opus
2 of 9 Wins
✓Output speed✓Context window
Llama 3.1 405B
7 of 9 Wins
✓Preference Elo✓LiveBench✓SWE-bench✓GPQA Diamond✓Time to first token✓Input price✓Output price
Anthropic
Leads 2 of 9 metrics
Claude 3 Opus

Original Claude 3 flagship. Kept so opus 3 vs later Opus and vs GPT-4o still resolve.

Elo 1,248$75/1M out
Meta
Leads 7 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 Opus
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 122 Arena Elo pts

Throughput LeaderClaude 3 Opus Wins

Claude 3 Opus

48 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
0–100 %ile
Head-to-Head Comparison

Overall Matchup Breakdown

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

Claude 3 Opus (2)vsLlama 3.1 405B (8)
Claude 3 Opus: 2W (20%)Overall: Llama 3.1 405BLlama 3.1 405B: 8W (80%)
← Claude 3 OpusLlama 3.1 405B →
🏆Llama 3.1 405B(5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Benchmark
Claude 3 OpusvsLlama 3.1 405B
Preference Elo
1,248vs1,370+122
Coding Elo
—vs1,385
SWE-bench
38.4%vs58.4%+20%
LiveBench
46.2%vs61.2%+15%
GPQA Diamond
50.4%vs75.2%+24.8%
Claude 3 Opus: 0WLlama 3.1 405B: 5W
Tied (1-1)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Benchmark
Claude 3 OpusvsLlama 3.1 405B
Output speed
48 tok/svs42 tok/s+6 tok/s
Time to first token
420 msvs360 ms+60 ms
Claude 3 Opus: 1WLlama 3.1 405B: 1W
🏆Llama 3.1 405B(2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Benchmark
Claude 3 OpusvsLlama 3.1 405B
Output price
$75/1Mvs$3.5/1M+$71.5/1M
Input price
$15/1Mvs$1.25/1M+$13.75/1M
Context window
200kvs128k+72k
Claude 3 Opus: 1WLlama 3.1 405B: 2W

Side-by-Side Benchmark Matrix

Preference Elo+122
Claude 3 Opus1,248
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Llama 3.1 405B1,370
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Coding Elo
Claude 3 Opus—
Llama 3.1 405B1,385
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
LiveBench+15%
Claude 3 Opus46.2%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Llama 3.1 405B61.2%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
SWE-bench+20%
Claude 3 Opus38.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Llama 3.1 405B58.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
GPQA Diamond+24.8%
Claude 3 Opus50.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Llama 3.1 405B75.2%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Time to first token+60 ms
Claude 3 Opus420 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Llama 3.1 405B360 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Output speed+6 tok/s
Claude 3 Opus48 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Llama 3.1 405B42 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Input price+$13.75/1M
Claude 3 Opus$15/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Llama 3.1 405B$1.25/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Output price+$71.5/1M
Claude 3 Opus$75/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Llama 3.1 405B$3.5/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Context window+72k
Claude 3 Opus200k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Llama 3.1 405B128k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
BenchmarkClaude 3 OpusLlama 3.1 405BAdvantage Delta
Preference Elo
1,248
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
1,370
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+122
Coding Elo—
1,385
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
—
LiveBench
46.2%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
61.2%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+15%
SWE-bench
38.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
58.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+20%
GPQA Diamond
50.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
75.2%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+24.8%
Time to first token
420 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
360 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+60 ms
Output speed
48 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
42 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+6 tok/s
Input price
$15/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
$1.25/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+$13.75/1M
Output price
$75/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
$3.5/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+$71.5/1M
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 94% 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 Opus$1,650.00 / mo
In: $525Out: $1,125
Llama 3.1 405B$96.25 / mo
In: $43.75Out: $52.5
Estimated Cost Delta

Llama 3.1 405B is estimated to save $1,553.75/month ($18,645/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
    Llama 3.1 405B:Pick Llama 3.1 405B 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 UILlama 3.1 405B

Lower TTFT (360 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude 3 Opus

Larger window (200k).

Screenshots / visionClaude 3 Opus

Claude 3 Opus 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 UILlama 3.1 405BLower TTFT (360 ms).
Long-document RAGClaude 3 OpusLarger window (200k).
Screenshots / visionClaude 3 OpusClaude 3 Opus 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 Opus

Elo 1,248
SWE-bench38.4%
Speed (tok/s)48 tok/s
Input / 1M Tokens$15/1M
Output / 1M Tokens$75/1M
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 Opus 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 Opus or Llama 3.1 405B?
Llama 3.1 405B leads SWE-bench at 58.4% vs 38.4%. 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 $75/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Claude 3 Opus or Llama 3.1 405B?
Llama 3.1 405B has the lower time-to-first-token (360 ms vs 420 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?
Claude 3 Opus 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 Opus 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 Opus matchups →|All Llama 3.1 405B matchups →
Claude 3 Opus vs Claude Opus 4 (next opus)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