Aya Expanse 8B vs Llama 3.1 8B

The two models at a glance

About Aya Expanse 8B

Cohere For AI's multilingual 8B covering 23 languages, outperforming Gemma 2 9B and Llama 3.1 8B in its language set. CC-BY-NC — non-commercial only. Strengths: 23 language coverage with strong low-resource performance, Beats Gemma 2 9B and Llama 3.1 8B on multilingual benchmarks, Particularly strong on low-resource languages, Compact 8B footprint.

About Llama 3.1 8B

Meta's Llama 3.1 8B, the open-weight benchmark of 2024. A 128k context, well-behaved instruction follower with the largest ecosystem in the open-source world. Strengths: 128k context window, Strong instruction following and coding, Enormous ecosystem of fine-tunes and integrations, Solid quality-to-size ratio.

How they compare

Aya Expanse 8B comes from Cohere For AI and Llama 3.1 8B from Meta, they belong to the Aya and Llama families respectively. This comparison is built entirely from structured specs — parameter count, VRAM by quantization, context window, license, and published benchmark scores — so the verdict below reflects measurable differences rather than marketing claims.

Aya Expanse 8B and Llama 3.1 8B share the same 8B parameter class. At Q4, Aya Expanse 8B fits in about 5 GB of VRAM versus 6 GB for the other — a 1 GB difference that matters on consumer GPUs.

The two models target different sweet spots: Aya Expanse 8B is tuned for chat, general, multilingual, while Llama 3.1 8B leans toward chat, general. Match the model to your dominant workload rather than to raw size.

On a typical mid-range GPU, Aya Expanse 8B pushes roughly 35 tokens/sec versus 30, so it is the more responsive choice for interactive or high-volume use. For long-context work, Llama 3.1 8B offers the bigger window (128k vs 8k tokens).

Memory, quantization & throughput

Across quantization levels, Aya Expanse 8B requires Q4 ≈ 5 GB, Q5 ≈ 6 GB, Q8 ≈ 9 GB, FP16 ≈ 16 GB, while Llama 3.1 8B requires Q4 ≈ 6 GB, Q5 ≈ 7 GB, Q8 ≈ 10 GB, FP16 ≈ 18 GB. In practice Aya Expanse 8B fits an 8 GB card at Q4, so plan your GPU around the Q4 or Q5 figure unless you specifically need the higher fidelity of Q8 or FP16.

Without a GPU, Aya Expanse 8B needs roughly 10 GB of system RAM to run on CPU and Llama 3.1 8B about 10 GB — workable for offline use but far slower than GPU inference. On a mid-range GPU you can expect on the order of 35 tokens/sec from Aya Expanse 8B and 30 from Llama 3.1 8B, scaling up to 90 and 80 tokens/sec on high-end hardware.

Which fits your GPU

Here is the highest-quality quantization of each model that fits common GPU memory budgets, so you can match Aya Expanse 8B or Llama 3.1 8B to the card you actually own:

• On a 8 GB GPU: Aya Expanse 8B runs at Q5 (6 GB); Llama 3.1 8B runs at Q5 (7 GB).
• On a 12 GB GPU: Aya Expanse 8B runs at Q8 (9 GB); Llama 3.1 8B runs at Q8 (10 GB).
• On a 16 GB GPU: Aya Expanse 8B runs at FP16 (16 GB); Llama 3.1 8B runs at Q8 (10 GB).
• On a 24 GB GPU: Aya Expanse 8B runs at FP16 (16 GB); Llama 3.1 8B runs at FP16 (18 GB).

Benchmark scores

Reported benchmarks for Aya Expanse 8B: Dolly (vs Llama 3.1 8B) 83.9.

Reported benchmarks for Llama 3.1 8B: MMLU 73, HumanEval 72.6, GPQA 46.7.

Bottom line: which should you pick?

• Pick Llama 3.1 8B for long-context work (up to 128k tokens).
• Pick Aya Expanse 8B if your workload is multilingual.

Which GPU should you buy to run Llama 3.1 8B?

To run Llama 3.1 8B locally at Q4, you need ~6 GB of VRAM. The best value for this is a RTX 5060 (8 GB VRAM).

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Aya Expanse 8B and Llama 3.1 8B?

The headline differences: both are 8B models; their context windows differ (8k vs 128k tokens); they ship under different licenses (CC-BY-NC 4.0 vs Llama 3 Community). Below we break down VRAM by quantization, benchmark scores, and a use-case verdict so you can pick the right one.

Can Aya Expanse 8B and Llama 3.1 8B run on a 24 GB GPU?

At a Q4 quantization, Aya Expanse 8B needs about 5 GB of VRAM and fits comfortably on a 24 GB GPU; Llama 3.1 8B needs about 6 GB and fits comfortably on a 24 GB GPU. Aya Expanse 8B is the lighter option for tight VRAM budgets.

What licenses do Aya Expanse 8B and Llama 3.1 8B use?

Aya Expanse 8B is licensed under CC-BY-NC 4.0 and Llama 3.1 8B under Llama 3 Community.

Which has the longer context window, Aya Expanse 8B or Llama 3.1 8B?

Llama 3.1 8B has the larger context window (128k vs 8k tokens), so it handles longer documents and codebases in a single prompt.