Granite 4.1 8B is $0.02 cheaper per 1M input tokens (33.3% lower; 1.5x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
NewGranite 4.1 8B vs gpt-oss-safeguard-20b
Pick Granite 4.1 8B when budget is the priority.
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Data confirmed:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick Granite 4.1 8B when budget is the priority.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Granite 4.1 8B is estimated at $0.1 vs $0.22 for gpt-oss-safeguard-20b, saving $0.12 (55.6% lower).
Cost-first pickGranite 4.1 8B
Context-first pickBoth models
Sample savings$0.1255.6%
10x traffic gap$1.25
The reported context window is tied, so cost and provider fit carry more weight. 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.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Granite 4.1 8B stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | Granite 4.1 8B | gpt-oss-safeguard-20b |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Granite 4.1 8B | $0.3 | $0.53 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Granite 4.1 8B | $0.15 | $0.38 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Granite 4.1 8B | $0.55 | $1.57 |
Granite 4.1 8B is $0.2 cheaper per 1M output tokens (66.7% lower; 3x difference).
Both models report the same context window at 131.07K tokens.
Granite 4.1 8B is $0.12 cheaper on the standard workload (55.6% lower).
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
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
Granite 4.1 8B has the lower input price; Granite 4.1 8B has the lower output price; both models report the same 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 $0.22 for gpt-oss-safeguard-20b.
Choose Granite 4.1 8B when you care most about lower input-token price, and lower output-token price.
Choose gpt-oss-safeguard-20b when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Granite 4.1 8B is estimated at $0.1 vs $0.22 for gpt-oss-safeguard-20b, 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 $0.02 cheaper per 1M input tokens (33.3% lower; 1.5x difference).
- Granite 4.1 8B is $0.2 cheaper per 1M output tokens (66.7% lower; 3x difference).
- Both models report the same context window at 131.07K tokens.
| Feature | NewGranite 4.1 8B (IBM) | gpt-oss-safeguard-20b (OpenAI) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $0.05 | $0.075 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $0.1 | $0.3 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $0.1 | $0.22 |
| Context Window | 131.07K | 131.07K |
| Release Date |
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 $0.22 for gpt-oss-safeguard-20b, 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 | Tie | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- Granite 4.0 Micro can replace Granite 4.1 8B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.07.
- gpt-oss-120b (free) can replace gpt-oss-safeguard-20b when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- gpt-oss-20b (free) can replace gpt-oss-safeguard-20b when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- gpt-oss-20b can replace gpt-oss-safeguard-20b when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.1.
- 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 $0.2 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash (free) offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash · DeepSeek · #1
- Hy3 preview · Tencent · #2
- Claude Opus 4.7 · Anthropic · #3
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 · Anthropic · #4
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Open OpenAI modelsGranite 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...
gpt-oss-safeguard-20b is a safety reasoning model from OpenAI built upon gpt-oss-20b. This open-weight, 21B-parameter Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) model offers lower latency for safety tasks like content classification, LLM filtering, and trust...