ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Granite-4.0-H-Small vs Sarvam 105B vs Apertus 8B

Too close to call on our weighted score (Sarvam 105B 65, Granite-4.0-H-Small 63, Apertus 8B 56). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. IBM

    Granite-4.0-H-Small

    Released Oct 2, 2025

    63/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.064 / $0.265
    • Context131K
  2. Sarvam AI

    Sarvam 105B

    Released Sep 1, 2025

    65/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.047 / $0.186
    • Context131K
  3. Swiss AI

    Apertus 8B

    Released Sep 2, 2025

    56/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.10 / $0.20
    • Context66K
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Sarvam 105B 65/100, Granite-4.0-H-Small 63/100, Apertus 8B 56/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Sarvam 105B on price. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

  • CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
  • Lowest priceSarvam 105BSarvam 105B $0.082 · Granite-4.0-H-Small $0.114 · Apertus 8B $0.125 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGranite-4.0-H-Small and Sarvam 105BGranite-4.0-H-Small 131,072 · Sarvam 105B 131,072 · Apertus 8B 65,536 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsGranite-4.0-H-Small: Text · Sarvam 105B: Text · Apertus 8B: Text
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGranite-4.0-H-SmallSarvam 105BApertus 8B
Price50%9510093
Inputs & features30%353525
Context window20%242412
Overall100%63/10065/10056/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Granite-4.0-H-Small vs Sarvam 105B vs Apertus 8B specifications side by side
SpecificationGranite-4.0-H-SmallIBMSarvam 105BSarvam AIApertus 8BSwiss AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)———
ECI rank———
Price per million tokens
Input$0.064$0.047 (best)$0.10
Output$0.265$0.186 (best)$0.20
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.114$0.082 (best)$0.125
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial watsonx.ai APIMedian of 2 providersMedian of 1 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens (best)131,072 tokens (best)65,536 tokens
Max output131,072 tokens (best)131,072 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoYes · low · medium · highNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenOpenApache-2.0
API model IDibm/granite-4-h-smallsarvam-105b—
API providers13 (best)1
ReleasedOct 2, 2025Sep 1, 2025Sep 2, 2025
Knowledge cutoff——Sep 2025
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Granite-4.0-H-Small$1.17
  • Sarvam 105B$0.842
  • Apertus 8B$1.40
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Granite-4.0-H-Small, Sarvam 105B or Apertus 8B?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Sarvam 105B 65/100, Granite-4.0-H-Small 63/100, Apertus 8B 56/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Sarvam 105B on price. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

Which is cheaper, Granite-4.0-H-Small, Sarvam 105B or Apertus 8B?

Sarvam 105B is cheaper at $0.047 input / $0.186 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). Granite-4.0-H-Small costs $0.064 input / $0.265 output per million tokens (official watsonx.ai API price); Apertus 8B costs $0.10 input / $0.20 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.082 per million tokens for Sarvam 105B versus $0.114 for Granite-4.0-H-Small (1.4× as much) and $0.125 for Apertus 8B (1.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Granite-4.0-H-Small has not been scored yet, Sarvam 105B has not been scored yet and Apertus 8B has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Granite-4.0-H-Small, Sarvam 105B and Apertus 8B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Granite-4.0-H-Small and Sarvam 105B have the largest context windows (131,072 and 131,072 tokens), against 65,536 for Apertus 8B. Maximum output per response: Granite-4.0-H-Small up to 131,072, Sarvam 105B up to 131,072, Apertus 8B up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Granite-4.0-H-Small accepts text; Sarvam 105B accepts text; Apertus 8B accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, all three publish their weights (Apache-2.0), so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Granite-4.0-H-Small is the newest, released Oct 2, 2025. Apertus 8B came out Sep 2, 2025; Sarvam 105B came out Sep 1, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Apertus 8B Sep 2025.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.