LLaMA 3 Model Variants
Meta’s LLaMA 3 family is the most popular open-source model series for production AI. Running it on a dedicated GPU server means zero per-token fees. Your effective cost per million tokens depends on your GPU choice, model variant, and utilisation rate. Here is the complete breakdown across every configuration.
Use this data alongside our cost per million tokens calculator to find the optimal setup for your budget and throughput requirements.
LLaMA 3 8B: Cost per 1M Tokens
| GPU | Monthly Cost | Throughput (tok/s) | Max Tokens/Month | Cost per 1M at 50% util | Cost per 1M at 100% util |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RTX 3090 24GB | $99 | ~80 | ~207M | $0.96 | $0.48 |
| RTX 5090 32 GB | $149 | ~120 | ~311M | $0.96 | $0.48 |
| RTX 6000 Pro | $249 | ~150 | ~389M | $1.28 | $0.64 |
| RTX 6000 Pro 96 GB | $299 | ~160 | ~414M | $1.44 | $0.72 |
The RTX 3090 at $99/month delivers the lowest cost per token for LLaMA 3 8B: just $0.48 per 1M tokens at full utilisation. That is cheaper than every commercial API including DeepSeek. See our RTX 3090 vs RTX 5090 comparison for the full GPU analysis.
LLaMA 3 70B: Cost per 1M Tokens
| GPU Setup | Precision | Monthly Cost | Throughput | Max Tok/Month | Cost/1M (50%) | Cost/1M (100%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1x RTX 5090 | INT4 (GPTQ) | $149 | ~20 tok/s | ~52M | $5.73 | $2.87 |
| 2x RTX 5090 | INT4 | $279 | ~40 tok/s | ~104M | $5.37 | $2.68 |
| 1x RTX 6000 Pro 96 GB | INT8 | $299 | ~30 tok/s | ~78M | $7.67 | $3.83 |
| 2x RTX 6000 Pro 96 GB | FP16 | $599 | ~50 tok/s | ~130M | $9.22 | $4.61 |
| 2x RTX 6000 Pro 96 GB | INT8 | $599 | ~65 tok/s | ~168M | $7.13 | $3.57 |
| 4x RTX 6000 Pro 96 GB | FP16 | $899 | ~100 tok/s | ~259M | $6.94 | $3.47 |
For LLaMA 3 70B, the sweet spot is 2x RTX 5090 with INT4 quantisation at $2.68 per 1M tokens. If you need full precision, 2x RTX 6000 Pro with INT8 at $3.57 per 1M tokens offers the best balance. Compare this against OpenAI’s $5.50 per 1M tokens to see the savings.
LLaMA 3.1 405B: Cost per 1M Tokens
| GPU Setup | Precision | Monthly Cost | Throughput | Cost/1M (50%) | Cost/1M (100%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4x RTX 6000 Pro 96 GB | INT4 | $899 | ~20 tok/s | $17.28 | $8.64 |
| 8x RTX 6000 Pro 96 GB | FP16 | $1,599 | ~30 tok/s | $20.53 | $10.27 |
| 8x RTX 6000 Pro 96 GB | INT8 | $1,599 | ~45 tok/s | $13.69 | $6.84 |
The 405B model requires a multi-GPU cluster. At $6.84 per 1M tokens (INT8, 100% utilisation), it is still cheaper than Claude 3.5 Sonnet’s API rate. For most use cases, the 70B model offers better cost efficiency. Check our full 70B model cost guide for details.
Self-Hosted vs API Cost per Token
| Option | Cost per 1M Tokens | Relative Cost |
|---|---|---|
| LLaMA 3 8B self-hosted (RTX 3090) | $0.48 | Cheapest |
| LLaMA 3 70B self-hosted (2x 5090 INT4) | $2.68 | 51% cheaper than GPT-4o |
| LLaMA 3 70B self-hosted (2x RTX 6000 Pro INT8) | $3.57 | 35% cheaper than GPT-4o |
| OpenAI GPT-4o | $5.50 | Baseline premium API |
| Claude 3.5 Sonnet | $7.80 | 42% more than GPT-4o |
At every GPU configuration, self-hosted LLaMA 3 70B undercuts premium API pricing. At high utilisation with batching, the gap widens further. See our detailed comparisons for GPT-4o, Claude, and Mistral.
The Cheapest Way to Run LLaMA 3
- LLaMA 3 8B: RTX 3090 at $99/month. Perfect for chatbots, summarisation, and lightweight tasks. $0.48/1M tokens.
- LLaMA 3 70B (budget): 2x RTX 5090 INT4 at $279/month. Best value for 70B quality. $2.68/1M tokens.
- LLaMA 3 70B (quality): 2x RTX 6000 Pro 96 GB INT8 at $599/month. Full quality, high throughput. $3.57/1M tokens.
- LLaMA 3 70B (throughput): 4x RTX 6000 Pro 96 GB at $899/month. Maximum concurrency. $3.47/1M tokens.
Read our cheapest GPU for AI inference guide for the complete hardware analysis, and compare LLaMA 3 costs against DeepSeek, Mistral, Qwen, and Phi-3 per-GPU breakdowns.
Getting Started
Deploy LLaMA 3 on a dedicated server with vLLM pre-installed. Most setups are live within an hour. Follow our self-host LLM guide for step-by-step instructions, and use the complete cost guide to compare against your current API spend.
Run LLaMA 3 at the Lowest Cost per Token
From $0.48 per 1M tokens on dedicated hardware. Zero API fees, unlimited inference.
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