API cost decision in 10 seconds

Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) vs Granite 4.0 Micro

Pick Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) when budget and context both matter.

Pricing data updated:  Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) is estimated at $0 vs $0.07 for Granite 4.0 Micro, saving $0.07 (100% lower).

Cost-first pickGemma 4 26B A4B (free)
Context-first pickGemma 4 26B A4B (free)
Sample savings$0.07100%
10x traffic gap$0.73

Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $0.73. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shapeToken mixBetter pickGemma 4 26B A4B (free)Granite 4.0 Micro
Input-heavy / RAG 5M input + 500K output Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) $0 $0.14
Balanced workload 1M input + 1M output Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) $0 $0.13
Output-heavy chatbot 1M input + 5M output Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) $0 $0.58
Cheaper inputGemma 4 26B A4B (free)$0 vs $0.02 / 1M
Cheaper outputGemma 4 26B A4B (free)$0 vs $0.11 / 1M
Larger contextGemma 4 26B A4B (free)262.14K vs 131K
Sample workloadGemma 4 26B A4B (free)$0 vs $0.07

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.
Gemma 4 26B A4B (free)Calculating…Estimated API cost
Granite 4.0 MicroCalculating…Estimated API cost
Cheaper for this workloadCalculating…Difference: calculating…

This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.

Quick Decision

Verdict

Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) has the lower input price, Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) has the lower output price, and Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) offers the larger context window.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0 for Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) and $0.07 for Granite 4.0 Micro.

Best Fit

Choose Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.

Choose Granite 4.0 Micro when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Head-to-Head Specs
FeatureGemma 4 26B A4B (free)
(Google)		Granite 4.0 Micro
(IBM)
Input Price
prompt tokens per 1M		$0$0.02
Completion Price
per 1M tokens		$0$0.11
Sample Workload Cost
1M input + 500K output		$0$0.07
Context Window262.14K131K
Release Date2026-04-032025-10-20
Gemma 4 26B A4B (free)

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is an instruction-tuned Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) model from Google DeepMind. Despite 25.2B total parameters, only 3.8B activate per token during inference — delivering near-31B quality at...

Granite 4.0 Micro

Granite-4.0-H-Micro is a 3B parameter from the Granite 4 family of models. These models are the latest in a series of models released by IBM. They are fine-tuned for long...

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use caseBetter pickWhy
Budget-constrained productionGemma 4 26B A4B (free)On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) is estimated at $0 vs $0.07 for Granite 4.0 Micro, saving $0.07 (100% lower).
High-volume input processingGemma 4 26B A4B (free)Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts or retrieved passages dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbotsGemma 4 26B A4B (free)Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document workGemma 4 26B A4B (free)A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages and source files.