# Granite 4.2 8B vs Grok 4.5

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Granite 4.2 8B and Grok 4.5 across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/granite-4-2-8b-vs-grok-4-5
- Last updated: October 15, 2026

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

## Quick Verdict

Grok 4.5 leads by point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence. Choose using the category evidence and your own workload tests.

## Summary

- Grok 4.5 has the higher overall point estimate 63.27 to 33.4. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.
- The clearest category separation is in agentic, where the averages are 15.7 for Granite 4.2 8B and 59 for Grok 4.5.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is Terminal-Bench 2.1 in Agentic, with scores of 20.6% and 83.3%.
- Granite 4.2 8B is the cheaper option on output tokens, which matters if you expect large responses or heavy interactive use.
- Grok 4.5 also has the larger context window at 500K.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Granite 4.2 8B | Grok 4.5 |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | IBM | xAI |
| Type | Open Weight | Proprietary |
| Reasoning | Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Context | 128K | 500K |
| Overall Score | 33.4 | 63.27 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 14 | 19 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $0.00 / $0.00 | $2.00 / $6.00 |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Directional only
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 15.7 (Estimated · #113/127)
- Grok 4.5 public-lane score: 59 (Supported · #31/127)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Grok 4.5 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 20.6% | 83.3% | Grok 4.5 |
| τ³-bench results | 58.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| BFCL v4 | 52.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 3.0 | Coming soon | 15.7% | Coming soon |
| deepSwe | Coming soon | 53% | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals) | Coming soon | 67.8% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Directional only
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 17.2 (Estimated · #125/150)
- Grok 4.5 public-lane score: 55.7 (Supported · #30/150)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Grok 4.5 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 47.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE-bench Pro | 19.1% | 64.7% | Grok 4.5 |
| SWE Multilingual | 30.8% | 78% | Grok 4.5 |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 20.6% | 83.3% | Grok 4.5 |
| LiveCodeBench v6 | 73.2% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SciCode | 36.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| CursorBench 3.2 | Coming soon | 66.7% | Coming soon |
| VulcanBench v3 | Coming soon | 89.9% | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals) | Coming soon | 87.4% | Coming soon |
| SWE-bench (Vals) | Coming soon | 86.6% | Coming soon |
| PostTrainBench v1.1 | Coming soon | 23.4% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 56.8 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)
- Grok 4.5 public-lane score: 54.1 (#28/28)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Grok 4.5 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| ARC-AGI-2 | Coming soon | 52.6% | Coming soon |
| ARC-AGI-3 | Coming soon | 0.3% | Coming soon |
| ARC-AGI-1 | Coming soon | 85.67% | Coming soon |

### Multimodal & Grounded

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: Coming soon
- Grok 4.5 public-lane score: 82.9 (Unranked · 1 rankable row)

### Knowledge

- Winner: Grok 4.5
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 30.6 (Supported · #154/184)
- Grok 4.5 public-lane score: 67.4 (Supported · #27/184)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Grok 4.5 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 64.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro | 74.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| GPQA Diamond (Vals) | Coming soon | 92.9% | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro (Vals) | Coming soon | 89.2% | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 86.5 (#41/146)
- Grok 4.5 public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Grok 4.5 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 79.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Mathematics

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: Coming soon
- Grok 4.5 public-lane score: 62.9 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Grok 4.5 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| AIME 2025 | 86.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| HMMT Feb 2025 | 78.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3) | Coming soon | 57.193% | Coming soon |
| FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4) | Coming soon | 24.390% | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Granite 4.2 8B or Grok 4.5?

Grok 4.5 has the higher overall point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.

### Where is the biggest gap between Granite 4.2 8B and Grok 4.5?

The widest category gap is in agentic, where the averages are 15.7 for Granite 4.2 8B and 59 for Grok 4.5.

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

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

### How many benchmarks does Grok 4.5 cover on BenchLM?

Grok 4.5 currently has 19 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

## Related Comparisons

- [Granite 4.2 8B vs Granite 4.2 30B](/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-granite-4-2-8b)
- [Grok 4.5 vs Granite 4.2 30B](/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-grok-4-5)
- [Granite 4.2 8B vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-granite-4-2-8b)
- [Grok 4.5 vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-grok-4-5)

## Explore More

- [Granite 4.2 8B profile](/models/granite-4-2-8b)
- [Grok 4.5 profile](/models/grok-4-5)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)