# Granite 4.2 3B vs Granite 4.2 8B

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Granite 4.2 3B and Granite 4.2 8B across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-granite-4-2-8b
- Last updated: September 10, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 9
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5

## Quick Verdict

Pick Granite 4.2 3B if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Granite 4.2 8B only makes more sense when its price, context window, or workload-specific category wins matter more than the overall score.

## Summary

- Granite 4.2 3B leads overall 43 to 38.51.
- The clearest category separation is in reasoning, where the averages are 37.7 for Granite 4.2 3B and 51.9 for Granite 4.2 8B.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is τ³-bench results in Agentic, with scores of 45.8% and 58.1%.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Granite 4.2 3B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | IBM | IBM |
| Type | Open Weight | Open Weight |
| Reasoning | Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Context | 128K | 128K |
| Overall Score | null | 38.51 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 9 | 14 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $0.00 / $0.00 | $0.00 / $0.00 |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Coming soon
- Granite 4.2 3B public-lane score: Coming soon
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 31.8 (Estimated · #138/152)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3B | Granite 4.2 8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| τ³-bench results | 45.8% | 58.1% | Granite 4.2 8B |
| BFCL v4 | 52.4% | 52.4% | Granite 4.2 3B |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | Coming soon | 20.6% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Coming soon
- Granite 4.2 3B public-lane score: Coming soon
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 37.2 (Estimated · #125/151)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3B | Granite 4.2 8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| LiveCodeBench v6 | 69.7% | 73.2% | Granite 4.2 8B |
| SciCode | 24.1% | 36.1% | Granite 4.2 8B |
| SWE-bench Verified | Coming soon | 47.7% | Coming soon |
| 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 |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Coming soon
- Granite 4.2 3B public-lane score: 37.7 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 51.9 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)

### Knowledge

- Winner: Coming soon
- Granite 4.2 3B public-lane score: Coming soon
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 34.7 (Supported · #161/183)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3B | Granite 4.2 8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 54.8% | 64.1% | Granite 4.2 8B |
| MMLU-Pro | 67.8% | 74.0% | Granite 4.2 8B |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Coming soon
- Granite 4.2 3B public-lane score: Coming soon
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 84.4 (#46/123)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3B | Granite 4.2 8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 74.3% | 79.3% | Granite 4.2 8B |

### Mathematics

- Winner: Coming soon
- Granite 4.2 3B public-lane score: Coming soon
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3B | Granite 4.2 8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| AIME 2025 | 78.3% | 86.7% | Granite 4.2 8B |
| HMMT Feb 2025 | 66.7% | 78.3% | Granite 4.2 8B |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Granite 4.2 3B or Granite 4.2 8B?

Granite 4.2 3B is ahead overall on BenchLM right now.

### Where is the biggest gap between Granite 4.2 3B and Granite 4.2 8B?

The widest category gap is in reasoning, where the averages are 37.7 for Granite 4.2 3B and 51.9 for Granite 4.2 8B.

### How many benchmarks does Granite 4.2 3B cover on BenchLM?

Granite 4.2 3B currently has 9 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

- [Granite 4.2 3B vs Granite 4.2 30B](/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-granite-4-2-3b)
- [Granite 4.2 8B vs Granite 4.2 30B](/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-granite-4-2-8b)
- [Granite 4.2 3B vs Claude Fable 5.1](/compare/claude-fable-5-1-vs-granite-4-2-3b)
- [Granite 4.2 8B vs Claude Fable 5.1](/compare/claude-fable-5-1-vs-granite-4-2-8b)

## Explore More

- [Granite 4.2 3B profile](/models/granite-4-2-3b)
- [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)