Granite 4.1 8B is $2.95 cheaper per 1M input tokens (98.3% lower; 60x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
🔥Kimi K3 vs Granite 4.1 8B
Pick Granite 4.1 8B for lower cost; pick Kimi K3 only if the larger context window matters more.
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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 for lower cost; pick Kimi K3 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 $10.5 for Kimi K3, saving $10.4 (99% lower).
Cost-first pickGranite 4.1 8B
Context-first pickKimi K3
Sample savings$10.499%
10x traffic gap$104
Kimi K3 has more context, but Granite 4.1 8B saves $10.4 on the standard workload. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $104. 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 | Kimi K3 | Granite 4.1 8B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Granite 4.1 8B | $22.5 | $0.3 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Granite 4.1 8B | $18 | $0.15 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Granite 4.1 8B | $78 | $0.55 |
Granite 4.1 8B is $14.9 cheaper per 1M output tokens (99.3% lower; 150x difference).
Kimi K3 has 917.5K more context (8x larger).
Granite 4.1 8B is $10.4 cheaper on the standard workload (99% 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; Kimi K3 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 $10.5 for Kimi K3 and $0.1 for Granite 4.1 8B.
Choose Kimi K3 when you care most about larger context window.
Choose Granite 4.1 8B when you care most about lower input-token price, and lower output-token price.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Granite 4.1 8B is estimated at $0.1 vs $10.5 for Kimi K3, saving $10.4 (99% lower).
- Granite 4.1 8B is $10.4 cheaper on the standard workload (99% lower).
- Granite 4.1 8B is $2.95 cheaper per 1M input tokens (98.3% lower; 60x difference).
- Granite 4.1 8B is $14.9 cheaper per 1M output tokens (99.3% lower; 150x difference).
- Kimi K3 has 917.5K more context (8x larger).
| Feature | 🔥Kimi K3 (MoonshotAI) | Granite 4.1 8B (IBM) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $3 | $0.05 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $15 | $0.1 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $10.5 | $0.1 |
| Context Window | 1.05M | 131.07K |
| Release Date | ||
| Popularity | #14 |
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 $10.5 for Kimi K3, saving $10.4 (99% 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 | Kimi K3 | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- Kimi K2.7 Code (free) can replace Kimi K3 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Kimi K2.6 (free) can replace Kimi K3 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Kimi K2.5 can replace Kimi K3 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $1.57.
- Kimi K2 0711 can replace Kimi K3 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $1.72.
- Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
- Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 offers 1.31M context with $0.17 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash Latest offers 1.31M context with $0.11 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 · DeepSeek · #1
- MiMo-V2.5 · Xiaomi · #2
- Hy3 · Tencent · #3
- Ox Alpha · stealth · #4
Cheaper alternatives
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Open provider hubsMoonshotAI catalog
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Open IBM modelsKimi K3 is a 2.8T parameter open-weight multimodal reasoning model from Moonshot AI. It is suited for complex coding, knowledge work, and long-horizon agentic workflows, and is particularly strong at...
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...