Home / Compare / Claude vs Llama

Claude vs Llama

In short: Llama is not on LMArena, so independent quality cannot be compared; on our editorial score Claude comes out higher, Llama is stronger on privacy and GDPR, and the entry price of Llama is not public.

ClaudeAnthropic
1506EloGDPR: Strong

3 of 6 criteria with a clear difference

vs
LlamaMeta
–EloGDPR: Caution

3 of 6 criteria with a clear difference

ClaudeThe head-to-headLlama
1818Code EloThe same blind duels on LMArena, but only with programming tasks. How we measure1528
9.0Editorial scoreOur own assessment on 10 of suitability for professional work, price and privacy. An assessment, not a measurement; that is why it always sits alongside the Elo. How we measure7.6
$20Price out per 1M (lower is better)$4.25

A bar fills towards the model's side; yellow is a clear difference, grey falls within the margin of measurement.

CriterionClaudeLlama
Quality (Elo)Quality from blind duels on LMArena: users choose between two anonymous answers. A difference of about 20 points is noticeable, a few points is noise. How we measure1506–
Editorial scoreOur own assessment on 10 of suitability for professional work, price and privacy. This is a judgement, not a measurement; that is why it always sits alongside the Elo. How we measure9,0 / 107,6 / 10
Code EloThe same blind duels on LMArena, but only with programming tasks. How we measure18181528
API price in, per 1M$4$1.25
API price out, per 1M$20$4.25
Entry price (subscription)$20 / monthon request
Businessfrom $20 / seat (Team / API)on request
Context window1M tokensup to 10M tokens
ModalitiesText, Image input, CodeText, Image, Code
EU hostingYesYes
Self-hostableNoYes
No training (business)YesYes
GDPR profileOur summary of what the provider itself publishes about your data. For a professional tool: whether the data is stored in the EU, whether there is a certification or GDPR guarantee, and whether the provider is based in the Netherlands or the EU. For a general model: EU hosting, no training on your data and self-hosting. From Strong to Unknown; Caution only for a model with a documented problem. How we measureStrongCaution

Source: LMArena, OpenRouter · retrieved 9 November 2026

Choose Claude if…

  • you consider reading long documents and codebases important
  • you consider careful, traceable reasoning important

Choose Llama if…

  • open weights that you can fully self-host matter to you
  • fine-tuning on your own data matters to you
  • privacy and GDPR weigh heavily

Frequently asked questions

By field

Which is better: Claude or Llama?

On combined quality (LMArena Elo plus our editorial score), Claude comes out higher, but the right choice depends on your field and requirements: Llama may suit you better on price or privacy. See the table above.

Which is better for privacy and GDPR: Claude or Llama?

Llama scores higher here (EU hosting, on-premise and no training on your data). Claude: by default data is stored in the US; EU data residency is possible via AWS Bedrock or Google Vertex AI (EU region). Business tiers and the API do not train on your input; consumer tiers do, unless you opt out.

Which is cheaper: Claude or Llama?

The entry prices are close together. Always check the current prices, as they change often.

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