# Flint vs Granite 4.2 8B

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Flint and Granite 4.2 8B across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/flint-40b-a2-5b-vs-granite-4-2-8b
- Last updated: October 20, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 4
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5.8

## Quick Verdict

Flint leads by point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence. Choose using the category evidence and your own workload tests.

## Summary

- Flint has the higher overall point estimate 67 to 32.74. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.
- The clearest category separation is in instruction following, where the averages are 94.7 for Flint and 86.5 for Granite 4.2 8B.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is Terminal-Bench 2.1 in Agentic, with scores of 54.9% and 20.6%.
- Flint also has the larger context window at 256K.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Flint | Granite 4.2 8B |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | Recursive | IBM |
| Type | Open Weight | Open Weight |
| Reasoning | Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Context | 256K | 128K |
| Overall Score | null | 32.74 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 5 | 14 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $0.00 / $0.00 | $0.00 / $0.00 |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Not comparable
- Flint public-lane score: Coming soon
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 15.9 (Estimated · #117/132)

| Benchmark | Flint | Granite 4.2 8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 54.9% | 20.6% | Flint |
| τ³-bench results | Coming soon | 58.1% | Coming soon |
| BFCL v4 | Coming soon | 52.4% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Not comparable
- Flint public-lane score: Coming soon
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 17.2 (Estimated · #128/153)

| Benchmark | Flint | Granite 4.2 8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 74.2% | 47.7% | Flint |
| LiveCodeBench v6 | 80.3% | 73.2% | Flint |
| SWE-bench Pro | Coming soon | 19.1% | Coming soon |
| SWE Multilingual | Coming soon | 30.8% | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | Coming soon | 20.6% | Coming soon |
| SciCode | Coming soon | 36.1% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- Flint public-lane score: Coming soon
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 55.9 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)

### Knowledge

- Winner: Not comparable
- Flint public-lane score: Coming soon
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 30.4 (Supported · #157/187)

| Benchmark | Flint | Granite 4.2 8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | Coming soon | 64.1% | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro | Coming soon | 74.0% | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Flint
- Flint public-lane score: 94.7 (#3/152)
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 86.5 (#44/152)

| Benchmark | Flint | Granite 4.2 8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 89.2% | 79.3% | Flint |
| IFEval | 95.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Mathematics

- Winner: Not comparable
- Flint public-lane score: Coming soon
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Flint | Granite 4.2 8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| AIME 2025 | Coming soon | 86.7% | Coming soon |
| HMMT Feb 2025 | Coming soon | 78.3% | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Flint or Granite 4.2 8B?

Flint has the higher overall point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.

### Where is the biggest gap between Flint and Granite 4.2 8B?

The widest category gap is in instruction following, where the averages are 94.7 for Flint and 86.5 for Granite 4.2 8B.

### How many benchmarks does Flint cover on BenchLM?

Flint currently has 5 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

### How many benchmarks does Granite 4.2 8B cover on BenchLM?

Granite 4.2 8B currently has 14 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

## Related Comparisons

- [Flint vs Granite 4.2 30B](/compare/flint-40b-a2-5b-vs-granite-4-2-30b)
- [Granite 4.2 8B vs Granite 4.2 30B](/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-granite-4-2-8b)
- [Flint vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/flint-40b-a2-5b-vs-granite-4-2-3b)
- [Granite 4.2 8B vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-granite-4-2-8b)

## Explore More

- [Flint profile](/models/flint-40b-a2-5b)
- [Granite 4.2 8B profile](/models/granite-4-2-8b)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)