Side-by-side comparison of Gemma 4 (Google · USA) and IBM Granite 4.1 8B (IBM · USA) for self-hosted deployment of the open-weight model. Gemma 4 is rated EU-ready; IBM Granite 4.1 8B is EU-ready. They part ways on commercial use: Gemma 4 is "Yes", IBM Granite 4.1 8B is "Unrestricted".
| Field | ||
|---|---|---|
| Summary | ||
| Verdict | EU-ready Major licence shift from Gemma 2/3: Apache 2.0 across the family. 140+ languages, multimodal (text/image/audio/video on small sizes), 128K-256K context. Strong permissive default for EU deployments that need robust multilingual support. | EU-ready Per the published model card, Granite 4.1 8B is an Apache 2.0 9B-parameter dense decoder with a 131k-token context, sourced from publicly-available datasets, internal synthetic data and human-curated material. IBM continues the unusual-for-the-industry training-data transparency that anchored the Granite 3 family, and offers IP indemnification when the model is consumed via watsonx — a strong default for regulated enterprise pilots that need a defensible weights-available alternative to hyperscaler frontier models. |
| Last reviewed | 2026-04-15 | 2026-05-03 |
| Open-weight | ||
| Licence | Apache 2.0 | Apache 2.0 |
| Commercial use | Yes | Unrestricted |
| Training data | Partial | Disclosed |
| Origin | USA | USA |
| Performance & pricing? | ||
| Quality index | 32/100 | — |
| Speed | — | — |
| Blended price | — | — |
| Context window | — | — |
| Evidence | ||
| Sources | ||