Granite 4.1 8B is $0.4 cheaper per 1M input tokens (88.9% lower; 9x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
Inkling Small vs Granite 4.1 8B
Pick Granite 4.1 8B for lower cost; pick Inkling Small 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 Inkling Small 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 $1.05 for Inkling Small, saving $0.95 (90.5% lower).
Cost-first pickGranite 4.1 8B
Context-first pickInkling Small
Sample savings$0.9590.5%
10x traffic gap$9.5
Inkling Small has more context, but Granite 4.1 8B saves $0.95 on the standard workload. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $9.5. 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 | Inkling Small | Granite 4.1 8B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Granite 4.1 8B | $2.85 | $0.3 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Granite 4.1 8B | $1.65 | $0.15 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Granite 4.1 8B | $6.45 | $0.55 |
Granite 4.1 8B is $1.1 cheaper per 1M output tokens (91.7% lower; 12x difference).
Inkling Small has 917.5K more context (8x larger).
Granite 4.1 8B is $0.95 cheaper on the standard workload (90.5% 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; Inkling Small 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 $1.05 for Inkling Small and $0.1 for Granite 4.1 8B.
Choose Inkling Small 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 $1.05 for Inkling Small, saving $0.95 (90.5% lower).
- Granite 4.1 8B is $0.95 cheaper on the standard workload (90.5% lower).
- Granite 4.1 8B is $0.4 cheaper per 1M input tokens (88.9% lower; 9x difference).
- Granite 4.1 8B is $1.1 cheaper per 1M output tokens (91.7% lower; 12x difference).
- Inkling Small has 917.5K more context (8x larger).
| Feature | Inkling Small (Thinking Machines) | Granite 4.1 8B (IBM) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $0.45 | $0.05 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $1.2 | $0.1 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $1.05 | $0.1 |
| Context Window | 1.05M | 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 $1.05 for Inkling Small, saving $0.95 (90.5% 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 | Inkling Small | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- Inkling Small (free) can replace Inkling Small when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Inkling (free) can replace Inkling Small when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Granite 4.0 Micro can replace Granite 4.1 8B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.07.
- 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.
- Llama 4 Scout offers 1.31M context with $0.25 sample workload cost.
- MiMo-V2.5 offers 1.05M context with $0.28 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 cheapest modelsLarger context alternatives
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Open provider hubsThinking Machines catalog
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Open Thinking Machines modelsIBM catalog
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Open IBM modelsInkling Small is an open-weight multimodal mixture-of-experts model from Thinking Machines Lab, with 12B active parameters out of 276B total. It is positioned as the smaller, more efficient member of...
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...