Granite Guardian 3.0 8B vs Llama Guard 2 8B
Granite Guardian 3.0 8B (2025) and Llama Guard 2 8B (2024) are compact production models from IBM Research and AI at Meta. Both ship a 8k-token context window. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads. It focuses on practical selection signals rather than broad model-family marketing.
Granite Guardian 3.0 8B is safer overall; choose Llama Guard 2 8B when provider fit matters.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Granite Guardian 3.0 8B | Llama Guard 2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | general production evaluation | provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Classification | Classification |
| Context window | 8k | 8k |
| Cheapest output | - | $0.25/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 1 tracked | 3 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Local decision data tags Granite Guardian 3.0 8B for Classification.
- Llama Guard 2 8B has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Local decision data tags Llama Guard 2 8B for Classification.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.
Granite Guardian 3.0 8B
Unavailable
No complete token price in local provider data
Llama Guard 2 8B
$103
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Replicate API
Cost delta unavailable until both models have sourced input and output token prices.
Switch friction
- No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Granite Guardian 3.0 8B and Llama Guard 2 8B; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
- No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Llama Guard 2 8B and Granite Guardian 3.0 8B; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2025-03-01 | 2024-04-18 |
| Context window | 8k | 8k |
| Parameters | 8B | 8B |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Decoder Only |
| License | Apache 2.0OSI-approved | Llama 2 Community |
| Openness | Open source | Open weights |
| Weights | Unknown | Available |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: permitted | Commercial use: conditional |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2024-04 | 2023-03 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Granite Guardian 3.0 8B | Llama Guard 2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | - | $0.05/1M tokens |
| Output price | - | $0.25/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Granite Guardian 3.0 8B | Llama Guard 2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | No |
| Multimodal | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| JSON / Tool use | No | No |
| Structured outputs | No | No |
| Code execution | No | No |
| IDE integration | No | No |
| Computer use | No | No |
| Parallel agents | No | No |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark scores are currently available for this pair.
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Last reviewed: 2026-09-18. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.