API cost decision in 10 seconds
Solar Pro 3 vs Granite 4.0 Micro
Pick Granite 4.0 Micro when budget and context both matter.
Budget verdict
Pick Granite 4.0 Micro when budget and context both matter.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Granite 4.0 Micro is estimated at $0.07 vs $0.45 for Solar Pro 3, saving $0.38 (83.8% lower).
Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $3.77. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Granite 4.0 Micro stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | Solar Pro 3 | Granite 4.0 Micro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Granite 4.0 Micro | $1.05 | $0.14 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Granite 4.0 Micro | $0.75 | $0.13 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Granite 4.0 Micro | $3.15 | $0.58 |
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 4.0 Micro has the lower input price, Granite 4.0 Micro has the lower output price, and Granite 4.0 Micro offers the larger context window.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0.45 for Solar Pro 3 and $0.07 for Granite 4.0 Micro.
Choose Solar Pro 3 when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.
Choose Granite 4.0 Micro when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.
| Feature | Solar Pro 3 (Upstage) | Granite 4.0 Micro (IBM) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $0.15 | $0.02 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $0.6 | $0.11 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $0.45 | $0.07 |
| Context Window | 128K | 131K |
| Release Date | 2026-01-27 | 2025-10-20 |
Solar Pro 3 is Upstage's powerful Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) language model. With 102B total parameters and 12B active parameters per forward pass, it delivers exceptional performance while maintaining computational efficiency. Optimized...
Granite-4.0-H-Micro is a 3B parameter from the Granite 4 family of models. These models are the latest in a series of models released by IBM. They are fine-tuned for long...
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | Granite 4.0 Micro | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Granite 4.0 Micro is estimated at $0.07 vs $0.45 for Solar Pro 3, saving $0.38 (83.8% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | Granite 4.0 Micro | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts or retrieved passages dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | Granite 4.0 Micro | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | Granite 4.0 Micro | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages and source files. |