Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Granite Guardian 4.1 8B

At a Glance

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Intelligence, Cost, and Efficiency
IntelligenceHigher is better · MM Intelligence v2.5#36 of 4627.7 score · 2/3 sources · provisional · missing LiveBench · full-core range 18.5–51.8UnrankedNot in the 46-model eligible cohort
Pricing and Limits
Input priceFrom · USD / 1M tokens$3.00Anthropic · Sep 3, 2026Not reported
Output priceFrom · USD / 1M tokens$15.00Anthropic · Sep 3, 2026Not reported
Context windowMaximum documented tokens200K131K
Model facts checkedSep 3, 2026View model evidence →Aug 28, 2026View model evidence →

Token prices are the lowest available sourced USD rates; input and output may use different providers. Cost ranking estimates output spend on LiveBench, not a full request bill. Ranking methodology →

Available Benchmarks

All benchmark results →
No Protocol-Matched Benchmark Yet.Results appear here only when both models share the same benchmark version, metric, evaluation protocol, and evidence class.

Side-by-Side Facts

FieldClaude Sonnet 4.5granite-guardian-4.1-8b
DeveloperAnthropicIBM
FamilyClaude 4Granite Guardian 4 1 8b
ModelClaude Sonnet 4.5granite-guardian-4.1-8b
VersionClaude Sonnet 4.5granite-guardian-4.1-8b
Lifecycleactiveactive
Released2025-09-29Unknown
Knowledge cutoff2025-01-01Unknown
Input modalitiesText, ImageText
Output modalitiesTextText
Context window200K131K
Total parametersUnknown8.4B
Active parametersUnknownUnknown
LicenseUnknownapache-2.0
Open weightsNoYes
API availableYesUnknown
Self-hostableNoYes
Provider accessAnthropic (Standard)Unknown
Capabilitieschat, generation, reasoning, structured_outputs, toolschat, generation, tools

Claude Sonnet 4.5 Capabilities

chatgenerationreasoningstructured outputstools
Serving providers1
Canonical IDanthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5

Granite Guardian 4.1 8B Capabilities

chatgenerationtools
Serving providers0
Canonical IDibm-granite/granite-guardian-4.1-8b

Primary Evidence

Sources and Freshness

Questions

Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Granite Guardian 4.1 8B FAQs

Is Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Granite Guardian 4.1 8B better for coding?+

This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Granite Guardian 4.1 8B, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Granite Guardian 4.1 8B?+

Only Claude Sonnet 4.5 has a directly sourced input price: $3.00 per million tokens. Only Claude Sonnet 4.5 has a directly sourced output price: $15.00 per million tokens.

Which has a larger context window, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Granite Guardian 4.1 8B?+

Claude Sonnet 4.5 has the larger sourced context window. Claude Sonnet 4.5 supports 200K and Granite Guardian 4.1 8B supports 131K.

Which performs better in benchmarks, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Granite Guardian 4.1 8B?+

There is no overall benchmark winner: At least two independently verified, protocol-matched benchmarks are required for an overall winner.

Can Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Granite Guardian 4.1 8B be self-hosted?+

Granite Guardian 4.1 8B is the only model in this pair currently marked as self-hostable. Claude Sonnet 4.5 is not marked open weight; Granite Guardian 4.1 8B is open weight.

Can Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Granite Guardian 4.1 8B understand images?+

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is documented with image input; Granite Guardian 4.1 8B is not documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.

Which can generate longer answers, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Granite Guardian 4.1 8B?+

Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. Claude Sonnet 4.5 is 64K and Granite Guardian 4.1 8B is —.

Do Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Granite Guardian 4.1 8B support reasoning and tool use?+

Claude Sonnet 4.5: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Granite Guardian 4.1 8B: tool calling. Feature support does not establish relative quality.

Which is available from more inference providers, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Granite Guardian 4.1 8B?+

Claude Sonnet 4.5 has 1 sourced provider route; Granite Guardian 4.1 8B has 0, so Claude Sonnet 4.5 has broader tracked availability.

Which offers better value, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Granite Guardian 4.1 8B?+

There is no universal value winner. Compare the input and output prices above with the matched benchmark result for your workload: cheaper tokens can be offset by different quality, token usage, latency, or provider availability.

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