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Granite 3.1 2B vs o4-mini

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

Updated

Granite 3.1 2B specs · o4-mini specs
Verdict by category
  • Priceo4-mini

    o4-mini publishes pricing ($4.40 / 1M output tokens) while Granite 3.1 2B does not.

  • Context windowo4-mini

    o4-mini 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.

  • Modalitieso4-mini

    o4-mini supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Granite 3.1 2B.

  • OpennessGranite 3.1 2B

    Granite 3.1 2B ships open weights (Apache-2.0); o4-mini is API-only.

On balance o4-mini edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Granite 3.1 2B's 1. o4-mini publishes pricing ($4.40 / 1M output tokens) while Granite 3.1 2B does not. o4-mini 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, Granite 3.1 2B handles text while o4-mini handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Granite 3.1 2B ships open weights (Apache-2.0); o4-mini is API-only.

o4-mini is the newer of the two, released 4 months after Granite 3.1 2B, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Granite 3.1 2B is usually picked for edge deployment and on device workloads, while o4-mini sees more deployments in reasoning and math. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecGranite 3.1 2Bo4-mini
ProviderOtherOpenAI
ReleasedDec 2024Apr 2025
Modalitiestexttext, vision
Context window128K tokens200K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not published$1.10 / 1M tokens
Output · 1MPricing not published$4.40 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff,2024-06
Open weightsYes (Apache-2.0)No
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, vs $9.90
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs $99.00
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, vs $191

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.

  • Granite 3.1 2BPricing unavailable
  • o4-mini$0.330

Benchmarks compared

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

Granite 3.1 2Bo4-mini
  • GPQA,81.4
Pick Granite 3.1 2B if

Granite 3.1 2B fits when…

  • Apache-2.0
  • Tiny enterprise model
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Apache-2.0).
Pick o4-mini if

o4-mini fits when…

  • Strong reasoning at mid-tier price
  • Fast for a thinking model
  • Solid tool-use
  • Long-context tasks, handles 200K tokens vs 128K for Granite 3.1 2B.
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Don't want either?

Consider DBRX

Databricks' 132B MoE, a notable 2024 open-weight release tuned for enterprise.

See DBRX specsGranite 3.1 2B vs DBRXo4-mini vs DBRX

Frequently asked

  • Is Granite 3.1 2B or o4-mini 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?
    o4-mini accepts 200K tokens vs 128K for Granite 3.1 2B.
  • Is Granite 3.1 2B or o4-mini better for coding?
    Both Granite 3.1 2B and o4-mini 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 2B ships open weights (Apache-2.0). o4-mini is API-only.
  • When were Granite 3.1 2B and o4-mini released?
    Granite 3.1 2B was released by Other on 2024-12-18. o4-mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-04-16.
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