Hunyuan Hy4 Preview vs IBM Granite 4.1

Tencent · China  |  IBM · US · Updated June 2026

Quick verdict

Pick Hunyuan Hy4 Preview for gpqa diamond (92.3) or terminal-bench (85.4). Pick IBM Granite 4.1 for enterprise-grade open weights - apache 2.0, iso 42001-certified, cryptographically signed or efficient hybrid mamba-2/transformer design - much lower memory and faster inference. On a tight budget at scale, IBM Granite 4.1 is the value pick.

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview (Tencent, China) and IBM Granite 4.1 (IBM, US) line up two different AI ecosystems against each other — a comparison that is as much about cost philosophy and openness as raw capability. Hunyuan Hy4 Preview is tencent's open-sourced (Apache 2.0) next-generation Hunyuan flagship preview, released August 28, 2026 as a 770B-parameter (49B active) MoE model that helped optimize its own training pipeline. IBM Granite 4.1 is iBM's most complete open-weight enterprise release - small, Apache-2.0, long-context and governance-friendly, built to deploy efficiently rather than top the leaderboard. They diverge most on price and context window — each quantified below from the models' real specs.

Key differences at a glance

Side-by-side specs

SpecHunyuan Hy4 PreviewIBM Granite 4.1
ProviderTencent (China) IBM (US)
ReleasedAugust 28, 2026 April 29, 2026
Context window1M+ tokens (~1,500 pages) 512K (~768 pages)
Price (in/out)$0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens Open weight (self-host / free)
Open weight?Yes — self-hostable Yes — self-hostable
Modalitiestext text, code
SWE-Bench VerifiedNot published Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1MNot published Not published

Who wins what

GPQA Diamond (92.3)

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview

Tencent's open-sourced (Apache 2.0) next-generation Hunyuan flagship preview, released August 28, 2026 as a 770B-parameter (49B active) MoE model that helped optimize its own training pipeline — and it carries the larger 1M+ tokens context.

Terminal-Bench (85.4)

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview

IBM Granite 4.1 is comparatively weak here — not a frontier-intelligence competitor - built for efficient deployment, not top benchmark scores

SWE-bench Multilingual (82.9)

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview

Tencent's open-sourced (Apache 2.0) next-generation Hunyuan flagship preview, released August 28, 2026 as a 770B-parameter (49B active) MoE model that helped optimize its own training pipeline — and it is the newer of the two.

Enterprise-grade open weights - Apache 2.0, ISO 42001-certified, cryptographically signed

IBM Granite 4.1

IBM Granite 4.1 lists enterprise-grade open weights - Apache 2.0, ISO 42001-certified, cryptographically signed among its strengths; Hunyuan Hy4 Preview does not.

Efficient hybrid Mamba-2/transformer design - much lower memory and faster inference

IBM Granite 4.1

IBM Granite 4.1 lists efficient hybrid Mamba-2/transformer design - much lower memory and faster inference among its strengths; Hunyuan Hy4 Preview does not.

512K-token context on small, deployable dense models (3B/8B/30B)

IBM Granite 4.1

IBM Granite 4.1 lists 512K-token context on small, deployable dense models (3B/8B/30B) among its strengths; Hunyuan Hy4 Preview does not.

Lowest cost at scale

IBM Granite 4.1

Its weights are open, so at volume you pay for your own hardware instead of Hunyuan Hy4 Preview's $0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens.

Largest single-prompt input

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview

Its 1M+ tokens window is about 2× larger than IBM Granite 4.1's 512K, fitting roughly 1,500 pages in one prompt.

Which should you pick?

A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume

IBM Granite 4.1

At Open weight (self-host / free) it undercuts Hunyuan Hy4 Preview, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.

Someone analysing very long documents or codebases

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview

Larger 1M+ tokens window fits more in one prompt.

Anyone whose priority is gpqa diamond (92.3)

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview

It is specifically built for that.

Anyone whose priority is enterprise-grade open weights - apache 2.0, iso 42001-certified, cryptographically signed

IBM Granite 4.1

That is its strongest area.

An enterprise with regional data-residency rules

IBM Granite 4.1 or Hunyuan Hy4 Preview

Origin (China vs US) affects where data is processed and which compliance regime applies — check the provider's terms for your region.

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview: where it fits

Tencent's open-sourced (Apache 2.0) next-generation Hunyuan flagship preview, released August 28, 2026 as a 770B-parameter (49B active) MoE model that helped optimize its own training pipeline. Released August 28, 2026 by Tencent, it is built for gPQA Diamond (92.3), terminal-Bench (85.4), sWE-bench Multilingual (82.9), and large jump in long-horizon coding vs prior Hunyuan model (DeepSWE 28.0 to 64.3).

Its trade-offs are real: text-only, no native vision support, labeled a 'preview', not yet Tencent's finalized GA flagship, and sWE-Marathon score still low in absolute terms (31.9) despite a large relative jump. At $0.834 in / $2.501 out per million tokens, it sits in the budget price band.

IBM Granite 4.1: where it fits

IBM's most complete open-weight enterprise release - small, Apache-2.0, long-context and governance-friendly, built to deploy efficiently rather than top the leaderboard. Released April 29, 2026 by IBM, it is built for enterprise-grade open weights - Apache 2.0, ISO 42001-certified, cryptographically signed, efficient hybrid Mamba-2/transformer design - much lower memory and faster inference, 512K-token context on small, deployable dense models (3B/8B/30B), and free to self-host; governance-friendly for on-prem and regulated deployments.

Its trade-offs: not a frontier-intelligence competitor - built for efficient deployment, not top benchmark scores, best as a workhorse; reasoning-heavy tasks favor larger models, instruct models are text-focused (vision and speech are separate family members), and efficiency and performance claims are IBM's own. As an open-weight model, its running cost is your own hardware rather than a per-token fee.

The bottom line for this matchup

This is less "which is smarter" and more "which ecosystem fits." Hunyuan Hy4 Preview (China) and IBM Granite 4.1 (US) differ on pricing philosophy, data-residency, and tooling as much as on raw scores. IBM Granite 4.1 is the cheaper option, which matters at volume. The pragmatic move is to run one real task through both and judge the outputs against your own constraints — including where your data is allowed to be processed.

Want both Hunyuan Hy4 Preview and IBM Granite 4.1 without two subscriptions? LumiChats gives you these plus 40+ models under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day) — draft with one, cross-check with the other.

See pricing

Frequently asked questions

Is Hunyuan Hy4 Preview or IBM Granite 4.1 better for coding?

Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for either model, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, Hunyuan Hy4 Preview leans toward gpqa diamond (92.3) while IBM Granite 4.1 leans toward enterprise-grade open weights - apache 2.0, iso 42001-certified, cryptographically signed, and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.

Which is cheaper, Hunyuan Hy4 Preview or IBM Granite 4.1?

IBM Granite 4.1 is cheaper — $0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens vs Open weight (self-host / free).

Which has the bigger context window?

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — 1M+ tokens vs 512K, about 2× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.

Can I use both Hunyuan Hy4 Preview and IBM Granite 4.1 together?

Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Hunyuan Hy4 Preview, IBM Granite 4.1 and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.

Which is newer, Hunyuan Hy4 Preview or IBM Granite 4.1?

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — released August 28, 2026, about 4 months after IBM Granite 4.1.

Related comparisons

Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.