Granite Vision 3.3 2B vs Llama Guard 4 12B
Granite Vision 3.3 2B (2025) and Llama Guard 4 12B (2025) are compact production models from IBM Research and AI at Meta. Granite Vision 3.3 2B ships a 128K-token context window, while Llama Guard 4 12B ships a 164K-token context window. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit. It focuses on practical selection signals rather than broad model-family marketing.
Granite Vision 3.3 2B is safer overall; choose Llama Guard 4 12B when long-context analysis matters.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2025-06-11 | 2025-04-05 |
| Context window | 128K | 164K |
| Parameters | 2B | — |
| Architecture | SigLIP2 vision encoder + 2-layer MLP (GELU) + Granite 3.1 2B Instruct LLM | decoder only |
| License | Open Source | Open Source |
| Knowledge cutoff | - | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Granite Vision 3.3 2B | Llama Guard 4 12B |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | - | $0.18/1M tokens |
| Output price | - | $0.18/1M tokens |
| Providers | - |
Capabilities
| Capability | Granite Vision 3.3 2B | Llama Guard 4 12B |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | No |
| Multimodal | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| Function calling | No | No |
| Tool use | No | No |
| Structured outputs | No | Yes |
| Code execution | No | No |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark rows are currently sourced for this pair.
Deep dive
The capability footprint differs most on multimodal input: Granite Vision 3.3 2B and structured outputs: Llama Guard 4 12B. Both models share the core language-model surface, so the practical split is not just feature count. Use those differences to decide whether the page is about raw model quality, agentic coding support, multimodal ingestion, or predictable structured API behavior.
Pricing coverage is uneven: Granite Vision 3.3 2B has no token price sourced yet and Llama Guard 4 12B has $0.18/1M input tokens. Provider availability is 0 tracked routes versus 3. Treat unknown pricing as an integration gap, then verify the route you will actually call before estimating production spend.
Choose Granite Vision 3.3 2B when provider fit are central to the workload. Choose Llama Guard 4 12B when long-context analysis, larger context windows, and broader provider choice are more important. For production, rerun your own prompts through the exact provider, region, and tool stack you plan to ship. This keeps the decision grounded in measurable tradeoffs instead of brand-level assumptions. It also helps separate model capability from provider packaging, which can change cost and latency.
FAQ
Which has a larger context window, Granite Vision 3.3 2B or Llama Guard 4 12B?
Llama Guard 4 12B supports 164K tokens, while Granite Vision 3.3 2B supports 128K tokens. That gap matters most for long documents, large codebases, retrieval-heavy agents, and conversations where earlier context must remain visible.
Is Granite Vision 3.3 2B or Llama Guard 4 12B open source?
Granite Vision 3.3 2B is listed under Open Source. Llama Guard 4 12B is listed under Open Source. License labels affect whether you can self-host, redistribute weights, or rely only on hosted APIs, so confirm the upstream license before deployment.
Which is better for multimodal input, Granite Vision 3.3 2B or Llama Guard 4 12B?
Granite Vision 3.3 2B has the clearer documented multimodal input signal in this comparison. If multimodal input is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Which is better for structured outputs, Granite Vision 3.3 2B or Llama Guard 4 12B?
Llama Guard 4 12B has the clearer documented structured outputs signal in this comparison. If structured outputs is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Where can I run Granite Vision 3.3 2B and Llama Guard 4 12B?
Granite Vision 3.3 2B is available on the tracked providers still being sourced. Llama Guard 4 12B is available on NVIDIA NIM, Replicate API, and OpenRouter. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options.
When should I pick Granite Vision 3.3 2B over Llama Guard 4 12B?
Granite Vision 3.3 2B is safer overall; choose Llama Guard 4 12B when long-context analysis matters. If your workload also depends on provider fit, start with Granite Vision 3.3 2B; if it depends on long-context analysis, run the same evaluation with Llama Guard 4 12B.
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Last reviewed: 2026-05-11. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.