API cost decision in 10 seconds

NewSolar Mini 4 vs Grok Latest

Pick Solar Mini 4 when budget and context both matter.

Page updated: 2026-09-23T11:07:57Z Data confirmed: 2026-09-23T12:07:51Z 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 $4 for Grok Latest, saving $3.85 (96.2% lower).

Cost-first pickSolar Mini 4

Context-first pickSolar Mini 4

Sample savings$3.8596.2%

10x traffic gap$38.5

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 $38.5. 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	Solar Mini 4	Grok Latest
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Solar Mini 4	$0.35	$10.4
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Solar Mini 4	$0.25	$6.4
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Solar Mini 4	$1.05	$25.6

Cheaper input Solar Mini 4 $0.05 vs $1.6 / 1M

Solar Mini 4 is $1.55 cheaper per 1M input tokens (96.9% lower; 32x difference).

Cheaper output Solar Mini 4 $0.2 vs $4.8 / 1M

Solar Mini 4 is $4.6 cheaper per 1M output tokens (95.8% lower; 24x difference).

Larger context Solar Mini 4 524.29K vs 500K

Solar Mini 4 has 24.29K more context (1.05x larger).

Sample workload Solar Mini 4 $0.15 vs $4

Solar Mini 4 is $3.85 cheaper on the standard workload (96.2% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

Solar Mini 4 Calculating… Estimated API cost

Grok Latest 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

Solar Mini 4 has the lower 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 $0.15 for Solar Mini 4 and $4 for Grok Latest.

Best Fit

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

Choose Grok Latest when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Solar Mini 4 is estimated at $0.15 vs $4 for Grok Latest, saving $3.85 (96.2% lower).
Solar Mini 4 is $3.85 cheaper on the standard workload (96.2% lower).
Solar Mini 4 is $1.55 cheaper per 1M input tokens (96.9% lower; 32x difference).
Solar Mini 4 is $4.6 cheaper per 1M output tokens (95.8% lower; 24x difference).
Solar Mini 4 has 24.29K more context (1.05x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	NewSolar Mini 4 (Upstage)	Grok Latest (xAI)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0.05	$1.6
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$0.2	$4.8
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$0.15	$4
Context Window	524.29K	500K
Release Date	2026-09-23	2026-07-08

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 $4 for Grok Latest, saving $3.85 (96.2% lower).
High-volume input processing	Solar Mini 4	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

No lower-cost same-provider swap is currently tracked for this pair.

Larger context near this budget

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.
GLM 5.3 Flash offers 1.31M context with $0.4 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 offers 1.31M context with $0.36 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

MiMo-V2.6-Pro · Xiaomi · #1
GLM 5.3 Flash · Z.ai · #2
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash · DeepSeek · #3
Hy4 preview · Tencent · #4

Cheaper alternatives

Review low-cost models sorted by a standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.

Open cheapest models

Larger context alternatives

Find models with larger context windows for RAG, long documents, and codebase review.

Open largest context models

Provider catalogs

Compare models within provider hubs before choosing a final API vendor.

Open provider hubs

Upstage catalog

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

Open Upstage models

xAI catalog

Check other xAI models with comparable pricing, context, or release timing.

Open xAI models

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...

Grok Latest

This model always redirects to the latest Grok model from xAI.