API cost decision in 10 seconds

Solar Pro 4 vs Granite 4.1 8B

Pick Solar Pro 4 when budget and context both matter.

Page updated: 2026-08-13T13:07:45Z Data confirmed: 2026-08-23T13:07:49Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Solar Pro 4 when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Solar Pro 4 is estimated at $0.09 vs $0.1 for Granite 4.1 8B, saving $0.01 (10% lower).

Cost-first pickSolar Pro 4

Context-first pickSolar Pro 4

Sample savings$0.0110%

10x traffic gap$0.1

Solar Pro 4 is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $0.1. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

Cost winner changes by workload shape: input-heavy / RAG favors Solar Pro 4, balanced workload favors Solar Pro 4, and output-heavy chatbot favors Granite 4.1 8B.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	Solar Pro 4	Granite 4.1 8B
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Solar Pro 4	$0.21	$0.3
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Solar Pro 4	$0.15	$0.15
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Granite 4.1 8B	$0.63	$0.55

Cheaper input Solar Pro 4 $0.03 vs $0.05 / 1M

Solar Pro 4 is $0.02 cheaper per 1M input tokens (40% lower; 1.67x difference).

Cheaper output Granite 4.1 8B $0.12 vs $0.1 / 1M

Granite 4.1 8B is $0.02 cheaper per 1M output tokens (16.7% lower; 1.2x difference).

Larger context Solar Pro 4 524.29K vs 131.07K

Solar Pro 4 has 393.22K more context (4x larger).

Sample workload Solar Pro 4 $0.09 vs $0.1

Solar Pro 4 is $0.01 cheaper on the standard workload (10% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

Solar Pro 4 Calculating… Estimated API cost

Granite 4.1 8B 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 Pro 4 has the lower input price; Granite 4.1 8B has the lower output price; Solar Pro 4 offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Solar Pro 4 is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0.09 for Solar Pro 4 and $0.1 for Granite 4.1 8B.

Best Fit

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

Choose Granite 4.1 8B when you care most about lower output-token price.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Solar Pro 4 is estimated at $0.09 vs $0.1 for Granite 4.1 8B, saving $0.01 (10% lower).
Solar Pro 4 is $0.01 cheaper on the standard workload (10% lower).
Solar Pro 4 is $0.02 cheaper per 1M input tokens (40% lower; 1.67x difference).
Granite 4.1 8B is $0.02 cheaper per 1M output tokens (16.7% lower; 1.2x difference).
Solar Pro 4 has 393.22K more context (4x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	Solar Pro 4 (Upstage)	Granite 4.1 8B (IBM)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0.03	$0.05
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$0.12	$0.1
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$0.09	$0.1
Context Window	524.29K	131.07K
Release Date	2026-08-10	2026-04-30

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Solar Pro 4	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Solar Pro 4 is estimated at $0.09 vs $0.1 for Granite 4.1 8B, saving $0.01 (10% lower).
High-volume input processing	Solar Pro 4	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	Solar Pro 4	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

Granite 4.0 Micro can replace Granite 4.1 8B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.07.

Larger context near this budget

DeepSeek V4 Flash Latest offers 1.31M context with $0.11 sample workload cost.
Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
Ox Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423 offers 1.05M context with $0.1 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 · DeepSeek · #1
MiMo-V2.5 · Xiaomi · #2
Hy3 · Tencent · #3
Ox Alpha · stealth · #4

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Provider catalogs

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Upstage catalog

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IBM catalog

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Solar Pro 4

Solar Pro 4 is Upstage's cost-efficient large language model, featuring a 524K context window. It is built for long-horizon tasks and agentic workflows, with strong capabilities in office productivity, document-intensive...

Granite 4.1 8B

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...