AI Models · Open-Source vs Paid

Gemma 4 26B A4B Open vs MAWeaver (alpha) Paid

Gemma 4 26B A4B vs Weaver (alpha) compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Can the open-source model replace the paid one? Full 2026 breakdown.

Weaver (alpha) — full profile ›

Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai

Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.

Gemma 4 26B A4BOpenGoogle

$0.04 /M input
$0.22 /M outputNo per-token fees if you self-host

TypeOpen-weight

Context window262K tokens

MultimodalYes

Self-hostYes

MAWeaver (alpha)PaidMancer

$0.4 /M input
$0.75 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)

TypeProprietary

Context window8K tokens

MultimodalNo

Self-hostNo

Choose Gemma 4 26B A4B if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose Weaver (alpha) if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

Gemma 4 26B A4B vs Weaver (alpha) specs

Spec	Gemma 4 26B A4B	Weaver (alpha)	Winner
Maker	Google	Mancer	–
Type	Open-weight	Proprietary	Gemma 4 26B A4B
Context window	262K tokens	8K tokens	Gemma 4 26B A4B
Input price	$0.04/M · free self-host	$0.4/M	Gemma 4 26B A4B
Output price	$0.22/M · free self-host	$0.75/M	Gemma 4 26B A4B
Vision / multimodal	Yes	No	Gemma 4 26B A4B
Tool / function calling	Yes	No	Gemma 4 26B A4B
Self-hostable	Yes	No (API only)	Gemma 4 26B A4B
License	Gemma License	Proprietary	Gemma 4 26B A4B

Price gap & when to choose each

3.4×cheaper per output token

Gemma 4 26B A4B is ~3.4× cheaper than Weaver (alpha) on output tokens ($0.22 vs $0.75 per M tokens).

Choose Gemma 4 26B A4B if…

You want to self-host or run on your cloud
You need the longer 262K context window
You prioritize data privacy & control
You want the lowest operating costs
You are building open or reproducible AI

MAChoose Weaver (alpha) if…

You want frontier performance through a managed API
You value reliability & ecosystem
You don't want to manage infrastructure

Feature comparison

Capability	Gemma 4 26B A4B	Weaver (alpha)
Open weights (downloadable)	✓	✗
Self-hostable	✓	✗
Runs fully offline	✓	✗
Vision / multimodal	✓	✗
Tool / function calling	✓	✗
1M+ context window	✗	✗

Benchmarks: Gemma 4 26B A4B vs Weaver (alpha)

Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).

Gemma 4 26B A4B

Weaver (alpha)

Intelligence index

16.7

–

Coding index

39.3

–

GPQA

79.2%

–

Humanity's Last Exam

19.3%

–

Long Context Reasoning

65.7%

–

IFBench

72.4%

–

τ²-Bench

43.6%

–

τ-Bench Banking

12%

–

Terminal-Bench

39%

–

Terminal-Bench Hard

13.6%

–

Speed

0 tok/s

–

Latency

–

Intelligence per $

93.3

–

Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.

How Gemma 4 26B A4B and Weaver (alpha) score

🏆 Best value & openness: Gemma 4 26B A4B (4.8 vs 2.3 / 5)

Criterion	Gemma 4 26B A4B	Weaver (alpha)
Cost-efficiency	5.0	5.0
Context window	4.0	2.0
Openness	5.0	1.5
Self-hosting	5.0	1.0
Multimodality	5.0	2.0

Scores come from live data — output price (cost), context length, open vs closed weights (openness & self-hosting) and vision/tool support (multimodality). Raw task quality isn't scored here; it depends on your benchmark — see the verdict.

What each model is

Gemma 4 26B A4B Open

Google · Open-weight

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is an instruction-tuned Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) model from Google DeepMind. Despite 25.2B total parameters, only 3.8B activate per token during inference — delivering near-31B quality at...

Weaver (alpha) Paid

Mancer · Proprietary

An attempt to recreate Claude-style verbosity, but don't expect the same level of coherence or memory. Meant for use in roleplay/narrative situations.

Other models in these families

These variants are tracked but not compared here — one page per family keeps the comparison readable.

Other variants tracked

Gemma 4 26B A4B (free)Gemma 4 31B (batch)Gemma 4 31BGemma 4 31B (free)Gemma 3 27BGemma 3 4BGemma 3 12BGemma 2 27B

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 4 26B A4B as good as Weaver (alpha)?

Gemma 4 26B A4B is open-weight and competitive on many tasks, but Weaver (alpha) may still lead on the hardest reasoning and agentic work. The gap keeps narrowing — benchmark both on your actual use case before deciding.

Can I run Gemma 4 26B A4B locally?

Yes. Gemma 4 26B A4B has open weights, so you can self-host it on your own GPUs or run it via a low-cost API. Weaver (alpha) is API-only and cannot be self-hosted.

How much cheaper is Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Gemma 4 26B A4B costs $0.22/M output vs $0.75/M for Weaver (alpha) — roughly 3x cheaper via API, and free if you self-host.

Gemma 4 26B A4B vs Weaver (alpha) — which should I pick in 2026?

Choose Gemma 4 26B A4B if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose Weaver (alpha) if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

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