Granite 4.2 30b API Pricing
Granite 4.2 30b has tracked API rates of $0.16 per 1M input tokens and $0.65 per 1M output tokens. Cached input is billed at $0.04 per 1M tokens. Rates are in USD from the AI IQ dataset; see the Granite 4.2 30b model profile for capability scores.
Price List
| Rate | Price (USD) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Input | $0.16 | per 1M tokens |
| Output | $0.65 | per 1M tokens |
| Cached input (read) | $0.04 | per 1M tokens |
| Blended input + output | $0.81 | 1M in + 1M out at list price |
| Context window | 524K tokens |
Pricing References and Billing Caveats
These are the tracked rates, not a live quote. Hosted-provider choice, region, long-context tiers, caching, batch discounts, and temporary promotions can change the actual bill. Open-weight availability does not mean hosted inference is free. Workload examples assume the listed standard input and output rates, with no cache hits or discounts.
Publisher-reported pricing notes
- The model may produce inaccurate, biased, or unsafe responses, and IBM recommends deployment alongside additional safety controls.
Official release and model references
These references document the model and its release; not every reference is a pricing table. Confirm the applicable endpoint and billing tier with your inference provider before purchase.
What a Workload Costs
Computed straight from the list prices above — token counts are illustrative workload sizes, not measurements of Granite 4.2 30b.
| Workload | Cost | Tokens |
|---|---|---|
| Short chat turn | $0.00049 | 1K in / 500 out |
| Summarize a long document | $0.017 | 100K in / 2K out |
| Agentic coding session | $0.145 | 500K in / 100K out |
| 1M input + 1M output tokens | $0.810 | 1M in / 1M out |
Effective Cost
In AI IQ's scoring, Granite 4.2 30b's list price is adjusted by a token-usage multiplier of 0.714, giving an effective cost of $0.5787 per 1M input + output tokens. That places it #23 of 146 models on the effective-cost ranking (lower is cheaper). Some models spend far more tokens than others on the same task, so effective cost compares what a unit of work really costs. Method details are on the methodology page; see all models on the cost charts and the falling cost of intelligence over time.
Cheaper Alternatives at Similar Capability
Models with a lower effective cost that score within a few IQ points of Granite 4.2 30b (IQ 98), or better.
| Model | Provider | IQ | Effective Cost / 1M |
|---|---|---|---|
| mimo-v2.5 | Xiaomi | 109 | $0.4134 |
| mimo-v2-flash | Xiaomi | 106 | $0.3937 |
| Muse Glimmer | Meta | 106 | $0.5657 |
| Ling 3.0 Flash | China (Other) | 105 | $0.2529 |
| gemini-3.1-flash-lite | 104 | $0.4305 | |
| Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | US (Other) | 102 | $0.2665 |