API cost decision in 10 seconds

Granite 4.1 8B vs Gemma 4 26B A4B

Pick Granite 4.1 8B for lower cost; pick Gemma 4 26B A4B only if the larger context window matters more.

Pricing data updated: 2026-05-16T17:16:02Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Granite 4.1 8B for lower cost; pick Gemma 4 26B A4B only if the larger context window matters more.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Granite 4.1 8B is estimated at $0.1 vs $0.23 for Gemma 4 26B A4B, saving $0.12 (55.6% lower).

Cost-first pickGranite 4.1 8B

Context-first pickGemma 4 26B A4B

Sample savings$0.1255.6%

10x traffic gap$1.25

Gemma 4 26B A4B has more context, but Granite 4.1 8B saves $0.12 on the standard workload. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $1.25. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cheaper input Granite 4.1 8B $0.05 vs $0.06 / 1M

Granite 4.1 8B is $0.01 cheaper per 1M input tokens (16.7% lower; 1.2x difference).

Cheaper output Granite 4.1 8B $0.1 vs $0.33 / 1M

Granite 4.1 8B is $0.23 cheaper per 1M output tokens (69.7% lower; 3.3x difference).

Larger context Gemma 4 26B A4B 131.07K vs 262.14K

Gemma 4 26B A4B has 131.07K more context (2x larger).

Sample workload Granite 4.1 8B $0.1 vs $0.23

Granite 4.1 8B is $0.12 cheaper on the standard workload (55.6% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

Granite 4.1 8B Calculating… Estimated API cost

Gemma 4 26B A4B 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; Gemma 4 26B A4B 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 $0.23 for Gemma 4 26B A4B.

Best Fit

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

Choose Gemma 4 26B A4B when you care most about larger context window.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Granite 4.1 8B is estimated at $0.1 vs $0.23 for Gemma 4 26B A4B, saving $0.12 (55.6% lower).
Granite 4.1 8B is $0.12 cheaper on the standard workload (55.6% lower).
Granite 4.1 8B is $0.01 cheaper per 1M input tokens (16.7% lower; 1.2x difference).
Granite 4.1 8B is $0.23 cheaper per 1M output tokens (69.7% lower; 3.3x difference).
Gemma 4 26B A4B has 131.07K more context (2x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	Granite 4.1 8B (IBM)	Gemma 4 26B A4B (Google)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0.05	$0.06
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$0.1	$0.33
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$0.1	$0.23
Context Window	131.07K	262.14K
Release Date	2026-04-30	2026-04-03
Popularity Rank current rank	Unranked	Unranked

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Granite 4.1 8B	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Granite 4.1 8B is estimated at $0.1 vs $0.23 for Gemma 4 26B A4B, saving $0.12 (55.6% lower).
High-volume input processing	Granite 4.1 8B	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Granite 4.1 8B	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	Gemma 4 26B A4B	A 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.
Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) can replace Gemma 4 26B A4B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
Gemma 4 31B (free) can replace Gemma 4 26B A4B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
Lyria 3 Pro Preview can replace Gemma 4 26B A4B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.

Larger context near this budget

Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.22 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Flash (free) offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

DeepSeek V4 Flash · DeepSeek · #1
Hy3 preview · Tencent · #2
Claude Opus 4.7 · Anthropic · #3
Claude Sonnet 4.6 · Anthropic · #4

Cheaper alternatives

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Larger context alternatives

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Provider catalogs

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IBM catalog

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

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Google catalog

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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...

Gemma 4 26B A4B

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...