# Granite Switch 4.1 vs Liquid d1

> Granite Switch 4.1 scores 59.4 (C) to Liquid d1's 44.5 (E) for decision models. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-liquid-d1
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-liquid-d1.md (~2,950 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-liquid-d1.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-liquid-d1.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-17

Granite Switch 4.1 scores 59.4 (C) on agent readiness against Liquid d1's 44.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do decision models.

- Granite Switch 4.1: grade C, 59.4/100, rank #601 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/granite-switch.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/granite-switch.json
- Liquid d1: grade E, 44.5/100, rank #990 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/liquid-d1.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/liquid-d1.json
- Best decision models for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/decision-models/index.md
- All 190 decisions comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-models/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Granite Switch 4.1 (C)

Good for: A team with a GPU that wants chat, routing decisions, a safety gate and English transcription from one self-hosted endpoint under a permissive licence.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 46 against 21
- Security & auth, 54 against 35
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 35
- Maintenance & community, 81 against 60
- Transparency & trust, 74 against 54

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: The decision adapter has no typed request format. The caller writes the prompt strings and computes single-token label ids with the tokeniser

### Liquid d1 (E)

Good for: Classification, routing, yes or no gates and rubric scoring over text and images at a low per-token price, with d1-ultra for harder cases, or on your own hardware with d1-3B where data can't leave.

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: The terms of 30 September 2026 allow Liquid to train on API content, with no opt-out or zero-retention option found


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Granite Switch 4.1 | Liquid d1 | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 46 | 21 | Granite Switch 4.1 +25 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 55 | 59 | Liquid d1 +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 63 | Granite Switch 4.1 +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 54 | 35 | Granite Switch 4.1 +19 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 35 | Granite Switch 4.1 +25 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 81 | 60 | Granite Switch 4.1 +21 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 74 | 54 | Granite Switch 4.1 +20 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **59.4 · C** | **44.5 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Granite Switch 4.1 | Liquid d1 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | IBM | Liquid AI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.liquid.ai/decisions/v1/systemone` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache 2.0 for the weights, the adapters and the repository | The hosted d1 model is proprietary under Liquid AI's terms of service. The d1-3B and d1-omni-600M weights and model code are under the LFM Open Licence v1.0, which is based on Apache-2.0 and conditions commercial use on annual revenue under $10 million. Training code and data aren't published |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-14 | 2026-10-15 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-09-30 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-09-30 |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | 3/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Granite Switch 4.1.** One self-hosted Apache 2.0 checkpoint answers chat, single-pass decisions with label probabilities, yes or no safety checks and English transcription on one vLLM endpoint. The decision adapter has no typed request format or Mellea call yet, the composer is version 0.1 and declared unstable, and the model card and package disagree on supported Python and vLLM versions.

**Liquid d1.** The hosted API costs $0.02 per million input tokens for d1 and $0.042 for d1-ultra, and the d1-3B weights run locally through Transformers or llama.cpp. Liquid's terms allow it to train on API content, and no status page, rate limits or error reference were found.

## Before you call either

### Granite Switch 4.1

1. Pass `chat_template_kwargs: {"adapter_name": "decision"}` or `"guardian-core"`. Without it the request is ordinary chat on the base model
2. For a decision, send the state and the `### DECISION` question as two user turns, request `logprob_token_ids` for the option labels, and set `max_completion_tokens` to 1
3. Use single-token option labels. Split more than 128 labels into chunks with the identical prompt and apply one softmax over all returned logprobs
4. Parse `guardian-core` answers as JSON, `{"score": "yes"}` or `{"score": "no"}`, where yes means the criterion is met
5. Add authentication before exposing the vLLM server. Neither vLLM nor the checkpoint requires a key by default

### Liquid d1

1. POST to https://api.liquid.ai/decisions/v1/systemone with a `liquid_` key as a Bearer header. This is not a chat-completions endpoint
2. Use `d1`, or `d1-ultra` for harder decisions at $0.042 against $0.02 per million input tokens. `d1:free` is no longer documented
3. Send images as Base64 data URLs in `images`, at most 8, with the whole JSON body under 4.5 MB. Remote image URLs are refused
4. Budget tokens per question. Each question is billed as its own prompt, with its text and every image counted again
5. Don't send confidential content to the hosted API, since the terms allow training on it. Run d1-3B locally for that data

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Granite Switch 4.1 or Liquid d1?

Granite Switch 4.1 scores 59.4 (C) on agent readiness against Liquid d1's 44.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Granite Switch 4.1 and Liquid d1 need an API key?

Granite Switch 4.1 needs no key. Liquid d1 needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Granite Switch 4.1 and Liquid d1 without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Granite Switch 4.1. Liquid d1 has a hosted endpoint at https://api.liquid.ai/decisions/v1/systemone.

### Are Granite Switch 4.1 and Liquid d1 open source?

Granite Switch 4.1 is open source (Apache 2.0 for the weights, the adapters and the repository). No open-source release is listed for Liquid d1.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-liquid-d1.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-liquid-d1.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "granite-switch", "b": "liquid-d1"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare granite-switch liquid-d1`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/granite-switch.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/liquid-d1.json

## Other comparisons with Granite Switch 4.1 or Liquid d1

- [Celeris-1 Decision vs Granite Switch 4.1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-granite-switch.md)
- [Celeris-1 Decision vs Liquid d1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-liquid-d1.md)
- [Clef vs Granite Switch 4.1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-granite-switch.md)
- [Clef vs Liquid d1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-liquid-d1.md)
- [Laya vs Granite Switch 4.1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-granite-switch.md)
- [Laya vs Liquid d1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-liquid-d1.md)
- [Decider vs Granite Switch 4.1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decider-vs-granite-switch.md)
- [Decider vs Liquid d1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decider-vs-liquid-d1.md)
- [Decision 3.0 vs Granite Switch 4.1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-granite-switch.md)
- [Decision 3.0 vs Liquid d1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-liquid-d1.md)
- [GLiClass vs Granite Switch 4.1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gliclass-vs-granite-switch.md)
- [GLiClass vs Liquid d1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gliclass-vs-liquid-d1.md)
- [Granite Switch 4.1 vs Kev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-jaredpalmer-kev.md)
- [Granite Switch 4.1 vs Microsoft-Decision-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-microsoft-decision-1.md)
- [Granite Switch 4.1 vs Drex 1.5](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-nace-drex.md)
- [Granite Switch 4.1 vs OpenAI Decisions API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-openai-decisions-api.md)
- [Granite Switch 4.1 vs pplx-decider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-pplx-decider.md)
- [Granite Switch 4.1 vs pplx-decider-flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md)
- [Granite Switch 4.1 vs ScaleDown](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-scaledown.md)
- [Granite Switch 4.1 vs SPEV](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-sprag-spev.md)
- [Granite Switch 4.1 vs kettei](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-sqwish-kettei.md)
- [Granite Switch 4.1 vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-strands-decider.md)
- [Granite Switch 4.1 vs Jev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-typesafe-jev.md)
- [Granite Switch 4.1 vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-vela.md)
- [Kev vs Liquid d1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-liquid-d1.md)
- [Liquid d1 vs Microsoft-Decision-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-microsoft-decision-1.md)
- [Liquid d1 vs Drex 1.5](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-nace-drex.md)
- [Liquid d1 vs OpenAI Decisions API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-openai-decisions-api.md)
- [Liquid d1 vs pplx-decider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-pplx-decider.md)
- [Liquid d1 vs pplx-decider-flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md)
- [Liquid d1 vs ScaleDown](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-scaledown.md)
- [Liquid d1 vs SPEV](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-sprag-spev.md)
- [Liquid d1 vs kettei](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-sqwish-kettei.md)
- [Liquid d1 vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-strands-decider.md)
- [Liquid d1 vs Jev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-typesafe-jev.md)
- [Liquid d1 vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-vela.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp