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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. Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B vs OpenAI: o3 Mini

Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 17, 2026noindex (thin pair)

Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B vs OpenAI: o3 Mini benchmark

In this head-to-head showdown, Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B is more budget-friendly at $0.18/1M per 1M output tokens. Review the complete breakdown below to determine which model best fits your performance and budget requirements.

Executive Comparison Verdict

Bottom Line: Both Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B and OpenAI: o3 Mini present distinct architectural strengths. Compare the verified benchmark matrix below to choose the model tailored to your specific application requirements.
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Verified Head-to-Head Advantage Breakdown

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

Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B (3)OpenAI: o3 Mini (0)
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B
3 of 3 Wins
✓Input price✓Output price✓Context window
OpenAI: o3 Mini
0 of 3 Wins
Competitive baseline across remaining benchmarks
Meta
Leads 3 of 3 metrics
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B

Auto-discovered from OpenRouter (meta-llama/llama-guard-4-12b). Preview until a second source matches.

$0.18/1M out
OpenAI
OpenAI: o3 Mini

Auto-discovered from OpenRouter (openai/o3-mini). Preview until a second source matches.

o3-miniElo 1,560$4.4/1M out

OpenAI: o3 Mini Thinking Depth & Cost Scaler

Model B

Simulate accuracy gains vs added response time & token cost

Mode: Medium (Standard)

Reasoning models “think before answering” by generating internal reasoning tokens. Higher effort improves math, coding, and logic accuracy, but increases response delay and token costs.

Thinking Delay
290 ms
Standard speed
Reasoning Depth
~1,500
Internal tokens
Cost / 1k Calls
$8.47
4.5× standard bill
Accuracy Boost
+4.5% accuracy
STEM & SWE-bench
Top Rival Showdowns for Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B
All Matchups
Compare vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5vs GPT-5vs Gemini 3 Provs Grok 4.6vs DeepSeek V4 Pro
Preference Leader

No shared data

Single model data

Throughput Leader

No shared data

No latency data

Value per Dollar LeaderMeta: Llama Guard 4 12B Wins

Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B

$0.18 / 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.

Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B (3)vsOpenAI: o3 Mini (7)
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B: 3W (30%)Overall: OpenAI: o3 MiniOpenAI: o3 Mini: 7W (70%)
← Meta: Llama Guard 4 12BOpenAI: o3 Mini →
🏆OpenAI: o3 Mini(5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Benchmark
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12BvsOpenAI: o3 Mini
Preference Elo
—vs1,560
Coding Elo
—vs1,585
SWE-bench
—vs78.5%
LiveBench
—vs72.4%
GPQA Diamond
—vs87.2%
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B: 0WOpenAI: o3 Mini: 5W
🏆OpenAI: o3 Mini(2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Benchmark
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12BvsOpenAI: o3 Mini
Output speed
—vs92 tok/s
Time to first token
—vs290 ms
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B: 0WOpenAI: o3 Mini: 2W
🏆Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B(3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Benchmark
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12BvsOpenAI: o3 Mini
Output price
$0.18/1Mvs$4.4/1M+$4.22/1M
Input price
$0.18/1Mvs$1.1/1M+$0.92/1M
Context window
1Mvs200k+849k
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B: 3WOpenAI: o3 Mini: 0W

Side-by-Side Benchmark Matrix

Preference Elo
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B—
OpenAI: o3 Mini1,560
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
Coding Elo
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B—
OpenAI: o3 Mini1,585
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
LiveBench
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B—
OpenAI: o3 Mini72.4%
livebench · Aug 17, 2026
SWE-bench
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B—
OpenAI: o3 Mini78.5%
swebench · Aug 17, 2026
GPQA Diamond
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B—
OpenAI: o3 Mini87.2%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Time to first token
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B—
OpenAI: o3 Mini290 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Output speed
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B—
OpenAI: o3 Mini92 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Input price+$0.92/1M
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B$0.18/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
OpenAI: o3 Mini$1.1/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Output price+$4.22/1M
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B$0.18/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
OpenAI: o3 Mini$4.4/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Context window+849k
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
OpenAI: o3 Mini200k
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
BenchmarkMeta: Llama Guard 4 12BOpenAI: o3 MiniAdvantage Delta
Preference Elo—
1,560
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
—
Coding Elo—
1,585
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
—
LiveBench—
72.4%
livebench · Aug 17, 2026
—
SWE-bench—
78.5%
swebench · Aug 17, 2026
—
GPQA Diamond—
87.2%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
—
Time to first token—
290 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
—
Output speed—
92 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
—
Input price
$0.18/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
$1.1/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
+$0.92/1M
Output price
$0.18/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
$4.4/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
+$4.22/1M
Context window
1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
200k
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
+849k
Interactive Simulator (USD)

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

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

Save up to 91% with Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B
Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo
Quick Presets:
Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out
RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B$9.00 / mo
In: $6.3Out: $2.7
OpenAI: o3 Mini$104.50 / mo
In: $38.5Out: $66
Estimated Cost Delta

Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B is estimated to save $95.50/month ($1,146/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

  • 1
    Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B:Pick Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B when you are optimizing output cost.
  • 2
    Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B:Pick Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B for million-token RAG or long-document jobs.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsinsufficient data

Need SWE-bench on both sides.

High-volume chatMeta: Llama Guard 4 12B

Lower output list price ($0.18/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient data

Need TTFT on both sides.

Long-document RAGMeta: Llama Guard 4 12B

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionOpenAI: o3 Mini

OpenAI: o3 Mini is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target WorkloadRecommended PickEvaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agentsinsufficient dataNeed SWE-bench on both sides.
High-volume chatMeta: Llama Guard 4 12BLower output list price ($0.18/1M).
Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient dataNeed TTFT on both sides.
Long-document RAGMeta: Llama Guard 4 12BLarger window (1M).
Screenshots / visionOpenAI: o3 MiniOpenAI: o3 Mini is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.
Community Sentiment

Cast Your Matchup Vote

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CompareLLM AI Matrix

Verified Head-to-Head Telemetry

LIVE BENCHMARK
VS
Meta

Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B

Elo n/a
SWE-bench—
Speed (tok/s)1M
Input / 1M Tokens$0.18/1M
Output / 1M Tokens$0.18/1M
OpenAI

OpenAI: o3 Mini

Elo 1,560
SWE-bench78.5%
Speed (tok/s)92 tok/s
Input / 1M Tokens$1.1/1M
Output / 1M Tokens$4.4/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B or OpenAI: o3 Mini?
We do not have preference Elo for both models, so we do not declare an overall winner. Compare the metrics that exist.
Which is better at coding, Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B or OpenAI: o3 Mini?
SWE-bench is missing for at least one model, so we do not rank coding from a single number.
Which is cheaper to run in production?
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B output tokens are $0.18/1M versus $4.4/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B or OpenAI: o3 Mini?
We do not have TTFT for both models.
Which has the larger context window?
Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B accepts 1M tokens versus 200k.
Can I self-host either model?
Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
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. Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B and OpenAI: o3 Mini Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Meta: Llama Guard 4 12B matchups →|All OpenAI: o3 Mini matchups →
OpenAI: o3 Mini vs OpenAI o1-mini (previous gpt-mini)OpenAI: o3 Mini vs GPT-5 mini (next gpt-mini)GPT-5 vs OpenAI: o3 MiniGPT-4.5 Orion vs OpenAI: o3 MiniGPT-5.6 Sol vs OpenAI: o3 MiniGPT-5.6 Terra vs OpenAI: o3 Mini