text-embedding-3-small vs Granite Embedding 278M Multilingual
Side-by-side comparison of API pricing, specs, benchmarks, and capabilities
text-embedding-3-small is 81.1% cheaper on blended cost ($0.020 vs $0.106/Mtok)
| Specification |
by OpenAI
|
by IBM
|
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Status | Current embedding | Current embedding Open weights |
| Released | Jan 25, 2024 | Jun 1, 2025 |
| Pricing per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.020/Mtok | $0.106/Mtok |
| Output | $—/Mtok | $—/Mtok |
| Blended avg | $0.020/Mtok | $0.106/Mtok |
| Specifications | ||
| Context window | 8K tokens | — tokens |
| Parameters | Proprietary | 278M |
| Speed (TPS) | — | — |
| Modalities | ||
| Input |
text
|
text
|
| Providers | ||
| Available from |
OpenAI — $0.020/Mtok
|
IBM — $0.106/Mtok
|
Cost at scale
1M tokens · 50/50 input/output| Volume | text-embedding-3-small | Granite Embedding 278M Multilingual | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1M tokens | $0.02 | $0.11 | $0.09 (84.9%) |
| 10M tokens | $0.2 | $1.06 | $0.86 (81.1%) |
| 100M tokens | $2 | $10.6 | $8.6 (81.1%) |
| 1000M tokens | $20 | $106 | $86 (81.1%) |
When to pick which
distilled from the pricing and spec data above
Pick text-embedding-3-small if…
- cost dominates: $0.020/Mtok blended vs $0.106 — 81.1% less on the same 50/50 token mix
Pick Granite Embedding 278M Multilingual if…
- you want open weights — self-host it, fine-tune it, or exit the API entirely; text-embedding-3-small is closed
Try text-embedding-3-small on OpenAI
The cheaper option here — text-embedding-3-small costs $0.020/Mtok blended on OpenAI.
Summary
text-embedding-3-small by OpenAI costs $0.020/Mtok input, with a 8K-token context window. It supports text input.
Granite Embedding 278M Multilingual by IBM costs $0.106/Mtok input. It supports text input.
On a blended cost basis, text-embedding-3-small is 81.1% cheaper than Granite Embedding 278M Multilingual.
Note: Pricing is per million tokens. Actual costs vary with usage patterns, prompt caching, and batch discounts. Always verify against official provider pricing pages.
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