API cost decision in 10 seconds

NewGranite 4.1 8B vs Qianfan-OCR-Fast

Pick Granite 4.1 8B when budget and context both matter.

Page updated:  Data confirmed:  Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Granite 4.1 8B when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Granite 4.1 8B is estimated at $0.1 vs $2.08 for Qianfan-OCR-Fast, saving $1.98 (95.2% lower).

Cost-first pickGranite 4.1 8B
Context-first pickGranite 4.1 8B
Sample savings$1.9895.2%
10x traffic gap$19.85

Granite 4.1 8B is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $19.85. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

Granite 4.1 8B stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shapeToken mixBetter pickGranite 4.1 8BQianfan-OCR-Fast
Input-heavy / RAG5M input + 500K outputGranite 4.1 8B$0.3$4.81
Balanced workload1M input + 1M outputGranite 4.1 8B$0.15$3.49
Output-heavy chatbot1M input + 5M outputGranite 4.1 8B$0.55$14.73
Cheaper input Granite 4.1 8B $0.05 vs $0.68 / 1M

Granite 4.1 8B is $0.63 cheaper per 1M input tokens (92.6% lower; 13.6x difference).

Cheaper output Granite 4.1 8B $0.1 vs $2.81 / 1M

Granite 4.1 8B is $2.71 cheaper per 1M output tokens (96.4% lower; 28.1x difference).

Larger context Granite 4.1 8B 131.07K vs 65.54K

Granite 4.1 8B has 65.54K more context (2x larger).

Sample workload Granite 4.1 8B $0.1 vs $2.08

Granite 4.1 8B is $1.98 cheaper on the standard workload (95.2% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.
Granite 4.1 8B Calculating… Estimated API cost
Qianfan-OCR-Fast Calculating… Estimated API cost
Cheaper for this workload Calculating… 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

Granite 4.1 8B has the lower input price; Granite 4.1 8B has the lower output price; Granite 4.1 8B offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Granite 4.1 8B is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0.1 for Granite 4.1 8B and $2.08 for Qianfan-OCR-Fast.

Best Fit

Choose Granite 4.1 8B when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.

Choose Qianfan-OCR-Fast when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Decision Notes
  • On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Granite 4.1 8B is estimated at $0.1 vs $2.08 for Qianfan-OCR-Fast, saving $1.98 (95.2% lower).
  • Granite 4.1 8B is $1.98 cheaper on the standard workload (95.2% lower).
  • Granite 4.1 8B is $0.63 cheaper per 1M input tokens (92.6% lower; 13.6x difference).
  • Granite 4.1 8B is $2.71 cheaper per 1M output tokens (96.4% lower; 28.1x difference).
  • Granite 4.1 8B has 65.54K more context (2x larger).
Head-to-Head Specs
FeatureNewGranite 4.1 8B
(IBM)		Qianfan-OCR-Fast
(Baidu)
Input Price
prompt tokens per 1M		$0.05$0.68
Completion Price
per 1M tokens		$0.1$2.81
Sample Workload Cost
1M input + 500K output		$0.1$2.08
Context Window131.07K65.54K
Release Date

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use caseBetter pickWhy
Budget-constrained productionGranite 4.1 8BOn the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Granite 4.1 8B is estimated at $0.1 vs $2.08 for Qianfan-OCR-Fast, saving $1.98 (95.2% lower).
High-volume input processingGranite 4.1 8BLower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbotsGranite 4.1 8BLower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document workGranite 4.1 8BA larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps
  • Granite 4.0 Micro can replace Granite 4.1 8B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.07.
  • ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B Thinking can replace Qianfan-OCR-Fast when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.21.
  • ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B can replace Qianfan-OCR-Fast when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.21.
  • ERNIE 4.5 VL 28B A3B can replace Qianfan-OCR-Fast when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.42.
Larger context near this budget
  • Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
  • Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
  • Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
  • DeepSeek V4 Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.2 sample workload cost.

Cheaper alternatives

Review low-cost models sorted by a standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.

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Larger context alternatives

Find models with larger context windows for RAG, long documents, and codebase review.

Open largest context models

Provider catalogs

Compare models within provider hubs before choosing a final API vendor.

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IBM catalog

Review all tracked IBM models before deciding whether this matchup is the right shortlist.

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Baidu catalog

Check other Baidu models with comparable pricing, context, or release timing.

Open Baidu models
Granite 4.1 8B

Granite 4.1 8B is a dense, decoder-only 8-billion-parameter language model from IBM, part of the Granite 4.1 family. It supports a 131K-token context window and is designed for enterprise tasks...

Qianfan-OCR-Fast

Qianfan-OCR-Fast is a domain-specific multimodal large model purpose-built for OCR. By leveraging specialized OCR training data while preserving versatile multimodal intelligence, it provides a powerful performance upgrade over Qianfan-OCR.