IBM · language model
Granite 4.0 Micro: pricing, context and benchmarks
Granite 4.0 Micro is a language model from IBM released on October 20, 2025. It costs $0.02 per million input tokens and $0.11 per million output tokens, with a 131K-token context window. No independent score has been published for it so far.
| Price | 29/30 | |
|---|---|---|
| Context | 3/15 | |
| Features | 7/15 |
What you need to know about Granite 4.0 Micro
Granite 4.0 Micro was released by IBM (United States) on October 20, 2025. It accepts text as input and produces text. Its context window reaches 131,000 tokens, larger than 19 % of the models in the registry, and it can write up to 117,900 tokens in one go.
It has been available for about 12 months, long enough for its prices and scores to have settled.
Granite 4.0 Micro pricing
On OpenRouter, Granite 4.0 Micro costs $0.02 per million input tokens and $0.11 per million output tokens. Counting three tokens read for every token written, its average price is $0.041 per million, more expensive than 2 % of paid models (18.6 times cheaper than the median of $0.76).
A concrete example: a task that sends 2,000 tokens (about 1,500 words) and receives a 500-token answer costs $0.0001. At 1,000 tasks a day, budget $3 a month. The price calculator redoes this with your own volumes.
Performance and benchmarks
Epoch AI does not yet publish a capabilities index for Granite 4.0 Micro. We therefore show no made-up performance rating: only price, context and features count towards its score.
Scores published by Epoch AI on the benchmarks the site tracks:
| Benchmark | What it measures | Score | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | PhD-level science questions | 28.3 % | Oct 2, 2025 |
| OTIS Mock AIME | maths competition problems | 2.8 % | Oct 2, 2025 |
Features, privacy and local use
- It does not support tool calling: it is not suited to driving an AI agent that has to act.
- It can answer in an enforced JSON format (structured outputs).
Its weights are open and downloadable from Hugging Face: you can run it on your own machines without sending your data to a third party.
Other IBM models
| Model | Released | Avg. price | ECI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Granite 4.2 8B | Aug 31, 2026 | $0.11 | — |
Verdict
Granite 4.0 Micro scores 65/100 on our grid, which only uses published figures.
Strengths
- Low price: cheaper than 98 % of paid models.
- Open weights: self-hostable, your data stays with you.
Limitations
- No tool calling: unusable as an agent's brain.
- No independent score published: performance cannot be verified.
- Text only: reads neither images nor files.
Avoid if…
- you are building an agent that must call tools.
Alternatives
- Schematron V2 Turbo$0.06
- Command R7B (12-2024)$0.07
- Nova Micro 1.0$0.06
- Gemma 3 4B$0.04
- Schematron V2 Small$0.1
- LFM2.5-2.6Bfree
Comparisons and tools
Learn more
Frequently asked questions
How much does Granite 4.0 Micro cost?
$0.02 per million input tokens and $0.11 per million output tokens on OpenRouter (checked October 25, 2026). A task with 2,000 tokens read and 500 written costs $0.0001.
How big is Granite 4.0 Micro's context window?
131,000 tokens, roughly 98,000 words, with a maximum of 117,900 output tokens.
Can Granite 4.0 Micro run locally?
Yes, its weights are published.
Is Granite 4.0 Micro suitable for an AI agent?
No: without tool calling it cannot act, only answer.
What are the alternatives to Granite 4.0 Micro?
The closest models on price and performance are Schematron V2 Turbo, Command R7B (12-2024), and Nova Micro 1.0.
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Neutrality. No affiliate links. No vendor pays to be reviewed, rated or ranked. Reviews are directed by François Chollet, neutral and factual, and every data point is dated and sourced. How we score