# Llama 3.1 8B pricing, and the waste that hides behind it

> Llama 3.1 8B pricing on Groq is $0.05 per million input and $0.08 output. At that rate a call rounds to nothing and volume becomes the whole bill.

URL: https://getculpa.com/llama-3-1-8b-instant-pricing
Last reviewed: 2026-08-01
Rates effective: 2026-07-02

## Answer
Llama 3.1 8B pricing on Groq is $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens, the cheapest rate point in this price book. A single call rounds to a hundredth of a cent, which is precisely why nobody instruments it. Culpa, a local-first LLM cost, margin, and forecast ledger, counts every call including the ones too cheap to notice.

## Why this happens
A model this cheap changes behaviour rather than budgets. Teams stop reviewing its call count, copy retry policies onto it from expensive models, and point it at every high-volume filtering job that comes along. None of that shows up per call, because per call there's nothing to see. It shows up as a monthly line nobody can account for, and the waste ratio inside it tends to be worse than on any model anyone watches.

## What this usually looks like
- Nobody reviews this model's call count because the per-call cost looks like zero.
- Retry settings here were copied from a frontier model and never re-examined.
- It serves several high-volume jobs that were added without a cost review.
- Its monthly total surprises people the first time somebody adds it up.

## Common mistakes
- Treating a cheap model as exempt from instrumentation. Why it hurts: Cheap times enormous volume is a real number, and it's the least examined one you have. Do instead: Meter it like anything else. The cost of counting is the same regardless of the rate.
- Copying a five-attempt retry policy onto a high-volume cheap model. Why it hurts: The multiplier applies to a call count several orders of magnitude larger than the model it came from. Do instead: Set retries from the failure mode and the volume, not from what the expensive model uses.
- Adding jobs here without a review because the rate is negligible. Why it hurts: Every job added at negligible cost sums to a line item nobody owns. Do instead: Give the model an owner and a monthly budget, the same as a costly one.

## Self-check
- Total this model's calls for last month. The count matters more than the rate.
- Compute cost per call to five decimal places, then multiply by the count. Read the total out loud.
- Find your retry setting here and multiply your worst case by it.
- List every job pointed at this model and check each had a cost review.
- Compare attempts against successful results. On a cheap model that ratio is rarely watched.

## A rate that rounds to nothing, at twenty million calls (illustrative)
A filtering job on Llama 3.1 8B Instant at real Groq rates of $0.00005 per 1k input and $0.00008 output. Each call sends 2,000 input tokens and returns 400. Call volume and the failure rate are modelled.
  Per call: (2 x $0.00005) + (0.4 x $0.00008) = $0.0001 + $0.000032 = $0.000132
  20,000,000 calls x $0.000132 = $2,640 a month
  3% of calls fail and retry to a five-attempt ceiling: 600,000 x 4 extra attempts = 2,400,000 calls
  2,400,000 x $0.000132 = $316.80 a month buying nothing
  That waste is 12% of the model's bill, on a line item nobody reviews
One call costs $0.000132 and the month costs $2,640, of which $317 is retries. The rate is what makes it invisible and the volume is what makes it matter.

## Cost figures
Every figure carries its confidence and its source. No figure on this site is provider-reported.
- $0.05 / $0.08 per million — Llama 3.1 8B Instant input and output rates on Groq, the cheapest point in this price book [calculated] Source: Price book row for groq/llama-3.1-8b-instant, $0.00005 and $0.00008 per 1k, effective 2026-07-02, re-verified against Groq's rendered pricing page 2026-08-01.
- $0.000132 — modelled cost of a single 2,000-token call returning 400 tokens [calculated] Source: (2 x $0.00005) + (0.4 x $0.00008) per 1k, using real Groq rates. Token counts are modelled.
- $316.80 — modelled monthly retry waste at a 3% failure rate and a five-attempt ceiling [calculated] Source: 2,400,000 wasted attempts x $0.000132, from the teardown arithmetic at real Groq rates. The failure rate and call volume are modelled.

## FAQ
Q: How much does Llama 3.1 8B cost on Groq?
A: $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output, re-verified against Groq's pricing page on 2026-08-01. The price book records no cached rate for it and Groq's page lists none.

Q: Is a model this cheap worth metering?
A: Yes, because the volume is what makes it expensive rather than the rate. A model at a twentieth of a cent per million tokens still produces a four-figure monthly line when it serves tens of millions of calls, and it's the line nobody reviews.

Q: What usually goes wrong on a very cheap model?
A: Retry policy, most often. A five-attempt ceiling copied from a frontier model multiplies against a call count several orders of magnitude larger, so the waste ratio here tends to be worse than on any model anyone watches.

## Sources
- Groq pricing: https://groq.com/pricing

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