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Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Granite 3.1 8B

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

Claude 3.5 Sonnet specs · Granite 3.1 8B specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceClaude 3.5 Sonnet

    Claude 3.5 Sonnet publishes pricing ($15.00 / 1M output tokens) while Granite 3.1 8B does not.

  • Context windowClaude 3.5 Sonnet

    Claude 3.5 Sonnet accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.

  • BenchmarksTie

    No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.

  • ModalitiesClaude 3.5 Sonnet

    Claude 3.5 Sonnet supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Granite 3.1 8B.

  • OpennessGranite 3.1 8B

    Granite 3.1 8B ships open weights (Apache-2.0); Claude 3.5 Sonnet is API-only.

On balance Claude 3.5 Sonnet edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Granite 3.1 8B's 1. Claude 3.5 Sonnet publishes pricing ($15.00 / 1M output tokens) while Granite 3.1 8B does not. Claude 3.5 Sonnet accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, Claude 3.5 Sonnet handles text, vision while Granite 3.1 8B handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Granite 3.1 8B ships open weights (Apache-2.0); Claude 3.5 Sonnet is API-only.

Granite 3.1 8B is the newer of the two, released 2 months after Claude 3.5 Sonnet, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Claude 3.5 Sonnet is usually picked for coding llm and code review workloads, while Granite 3.1 8B sees more deployments in enterprise llm and commercial use llm. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecClaude 3.5 SonnetGranite 3.1 8B
ProviderAnthropicOther
ReleasedOct 2024Dec 2024
Modalitiestext, visiontext
Context window200K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$3.00 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Output · 1M$15.00 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsNoYes (Apache-2.0)
API availableYesYes

Pricing at scale

What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day$31.50 vs ,
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$315 vs ,
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$540 vs ,

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Claude 3.5 Sonnet$1.05
  • Granite 3.1 8BPricing unavailable

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

Claude 3.5 SonnetGranite 3.1 8B
  • HumanEval92.0
Pick Claude 3.5 Sonnet if

Claude 3.5 Sonnet fits when…

  • Mature and battle-tested
  • Strong code
  • Long-context tasks, handles 200K tokens vs 128K for Granite 3.1 8B.
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Pick Granite 3.1 8B if

Granite 3.1 8B fits when…

  • Apache-2.0
  • Enterprise-friendly
  • IP-clean training
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Apache-2.0).
Don't want either?

Consider Claude Opus 4.7

Anthropic's mid-2026 flagship, ahead on SWE-bench, agent reliability, and writing quality.

See Claude Opus 4.7 specsClaude 3.5 Sonnet vs Claude Opus 4.7Granite 3.1 8B vs Claude Opus 4.7

Frequently asked

  • Is Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Granite 3.1 8B cheaper?
    Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Claude 3.5 Sonnet accepts 200K tokens vs 128K for Granite 3.1 8B.
  • Is Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Granite 3.1 8B better for coding?
    Both Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Granite 3.1 8B are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.
  • Are either of these models open source?
    Granite 3.1 8B ships open weights (Apache-2.0). Claude 3.5 Sonnet is API-only.
  • When were Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Granite 3.1 8B released?
    Claude 3.5 Sonnet was released by Anthropic on 2024-10-22. Granite 3.1 8B was released by Other on 2024-12-18.
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