Granite 4.2 8B vs Solar Mini 4
Which is better for the money: Granite 4.2 8B by IBM or Solar Mini 4 by Upstage? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Solar Mini 4 scores 13.0 points higher (24.1 vs 11.1) but costs 9.5× as much to run the benchmark ($502 vs $53.1; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Solar Mini 4 when you need intelligence above 11.1, and Granite 4.2 8B when 11.1 is enough.
| Metric | Granite 4.2 8B | Solar Mini 4 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.1 | 24.1 | +117.1% Solar Mini 4 is 2.2× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $53.07 | $502.02 | +846.0% Solar Mini 4 is 9.5× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 46.99s | 25.33s | −46.1% Solar Mini 4 is 46.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.06 / $0.25 | $0.10 / $0.40 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Solar Mini 4 vs Granite 4.2 8B: 117.1% more intelligence, 846.0% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 46.1% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Granite 4.2 8B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (High) scores 32.90 for $47.9.
- Solar Mini 4 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Granite 4.2 8BSolar Mini 4Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-8b/solar-mini4 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-8b/solar-mini4?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill