The closest alternative to Llama Guard 4 12B is Llama 4 Maverick — comparable intelligence (18.4 vs —); for a cheaper option, MiMo-V2.5 runs $0.140/M vs $0.180/M; for more speed, Morph V3 Large hits 2.6k t/s; and the best open-weight substitute is MiniMax M3.
Llama 4 Maverick is the closest alternative to Llama Guard 4 12B, with an Intelligence Index of 18.4 (Llama Guard 4 12B scores —) at $0.150 per million input tokens.
Yes — MiMo-V2.5 costs $0.140 per million input tokens versus $0.180 for Llama Guard 4 12B, while staying within ~8 points of its Intelligence Index.
MiniMax M3 is the strongest open-weight alternative to Llama Guard 4 12B — downloadable from Hugging Face and self-hostable, scoring 54.7 on intelligence.