API cost decision in 10 seconds

NewLFM2.5-24B-A2B vs Solar Mini 4

Pick Solar Mini 4 when budget and context both matter.

Page updated: 2026-10-13T20:10:44Z Data confirmed: 2026-10-15T03:07:52Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Solar Mini 4 when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Solar Mini 4 is estimated at $0.15 vs $0.4 for LFM2.5-24B-A2B, saving $0.25 (62.5% lower).

Cost-first pickSolar Mini 4

Context-first pickSolar Mini 4

Sample savings$0.2562.5%

10x traffic gap$2.5

Solar Mini 4 is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $2.5. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

Solar Mini 4 stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	LFM2.5-24B-A2B	Solar Mini 4
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Solar Mini 4	$0.6	$0.35
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Solar Mini 4	$0.75	$0.25
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Solar Mini 4	$3.55	$1.05

Cheaper input Tie $0.05 vs $0.05 / 1M

Both models report the same input price at $0.05 per 1M tokens.

Cheaper output Solar Mini 4 $0.7 vs $0.2 / 1M

Solar Mini 4 is $0.5 cheaper per 1M output tokens (71.4% lower; 3.5x difference).

Larger context Solar Mini 4 128K vs 524.29K

Solar Mini 4 has 396.29K more context (4.1x larger).

Sample workload Solar Mini 4 $0.4 vs $0.15

Solar Mini 4 is $0.25 cheaper on the standard workload (62.5% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

LFM2.5-24B-A2B Calculating… Estimated API cost

Solar Mini 4 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

both models tie on input price; Solar Mini 4 has the lower output price; Solar Mini 4 offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Solar Mini 4 is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0.4 for LFM2.5-24B-A2B and $0.15 for Solar Mini 4.

Best Fit

Choose LFM2.5-24B-A2B when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Choose Solar Mini 4 when you care most about lower output-token price, and larger context window.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Solar Mini 4 is estimated at $0.15 vs $0.4 for LFM2.5-24B-A2B, saving $0.25 (62.5% lower).
Solar Mini 4 is $0.25 cheaper on the standard workload (62.5% lower).
Both models report the same input price at $0.05 per 1M tokens.
Solar Mini 4 is $0.5 cheaper per 1M output tokens (71.4% lower; 3.5x difference).
Solar Mini 4 has 396.29K more context (4.1x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	NewLFM2.5-24B-A2B (LiquidAI)	Solar Mini 4 (Upstage)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0.05	$0.05
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$0.7	$0.2
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$0.4	$0.15
Context Window	128K	524.29K
Release Date	2026-10-13	2026-09-23

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Solar Mini 4	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Solar Mini 4 is estimated at $0.15 vs $0.4 for LFM2.5-24B-A2B, saving $0.25 (62.5% lower).
High-volume input processing	Tie	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Solar Mini 4	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	Solar Mini 4	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

LFM2.5-2.6B (free) can replace LFM2.5-24B-A2B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking (free) can replace LFM2.5-24B-A2B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct (free) can replace LFM2.5-24B-A2B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
LFM2-24B-A2B can replace LFM2.5-24B-A2B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.09.

Larger context near this budget

Llama 4 Scout offers 1.31M context with $0.47 sample workload cost.
MiMo-V2.6-Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.28 sample workload cost.
GPT-6 Luna offers 1.05M context with $0.35 sample workload cost.
GPT-6 Luna Pro offers 1.05M context with $0.35 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

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GLM 5.3 Flash · Z.ai · #3
MiMo-V2.6-Flash · Xiaomi · #4

Cheaper alternatives

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Larger context alternatives

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Provider catalogs

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LiquidAI catalog

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Upstage catalog

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LFM2.5-24B-A2B

LFM2.5-24B-A2B is a mixture-of-experts reasoning model from Liquid AI with 24B total and 2.45B active parameters. It always reasons before answering and is built for agents that call tools. Liquid...

Solar Mini 4

Solar Mini 4 is Upstage's compact, cost-efficient language model, a 35B-parameter mixture-of-experts with 3B active parameters and a 524K context window. It is built for agentic use cases where response...