# Granite 4.2 8B vs LFM3-1.7B

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Granite 4.2 8B and LFM3-1.7B across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/granite-4-2-8b-vs-lfm3-1-7b
- Last updated: October 27, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 10
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5.8

## Quick Verdict

Granite 4.2 8B leads by point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence. Choose using the category evidence and your own workload tests.

## Summary

- Granite 4.2 8B has the higher overall point estimate 33.24 to 22.99. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.
- The clearest category separation is in instruction following, where the averages are 86.5 for Granite 4.2 8B and 71.7 for LFM3-1.7B.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is BFCL v4 in Agentic, with scores of 52.4% and 71.4%.
- LFM3-1.7B also has the larger context window at 256K.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Granite 4.2 8B | LFM3-1.7B |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | IBM | LiquidAI |
| Type | Open Weight | Open Weight |
| Reasoning | Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Context | 128K | 256K |
| Overall Score | 33.24 | 22.99 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 14 | 24 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $0.00 / $0.00 | $0.00 / $0.00 |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Directional only
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 16.6 (Estimated · #119/134)
- LFM3-1.7B public-lane score: 14.4 (Estimated · #123/134)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | LFM3-1.7B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 20.6% | 12.9% | Granite 4.2 8B |
| τ³-bench results | 58.1% | 68.0% | LFM3-1.7B |
| BFCL v4 | 52.4% | 71.4% | LFM3-1.7B |
| AutomationBench | Coming soon | 41.3% | Coming soon |
| WebArena-Verified | Coming soon | 38.4% | Coming soon |
| MCP Atlas | Coming soon | 32.6% | Coming soon |
| ToolSandbox | Coming soon | 80.36% | Coming soon |
| Claw-Eval | Coming soon | 68.6% | Coming soon |
| HLE w/ tools | Coming soon | 13.9% | Coming soon |
| LiveClaw | Coming soon | 45.60% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Directional only
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 17.6 (Estimated · #129/155)
- LFM3-1.7B public-lane score: 13 (Estimated · #142/155)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | LFM3-1.7B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 47.7% | 43.4% | Granite 4.2 8B |
| SWE-bench Pro | 19.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE Multilingual | 30.8% | 23% | Granite 4.2 8B |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 20.6% | 12.9% | Granite 4.2 8B |
| LiveCodeBench v6 | 73.2% | 73.5% | LFM3-1.7B |
| SciCode | 36.1% | 28.5% | Granite 4.2 8B |
| LiveCodeBench Pro | Coming soon | 31.7% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 55.9 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)
- LFM3-1.7B public-lane score: 61.3 (Unranked · 1 rankable row)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | LFM3-1.7B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| RULER (128K) | Coming soon | 65.56% | Coming soon |

### Knowledge

- Winner: Directional only
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 30.4 (Supported · #157/189)
- LFM3-1.7B public-lane score: 25.5 (Estimated · #175/189)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | LFM3-1.7B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 64.1% | 63.4% | Granite 4.2 8B |
| MMLU-Pro | 74.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| GPQA-D | Coming soon | 63.4% | Coming soon |
| HLE | Coming soon | 7.2% | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Granite 4.2 8B
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 86.5 (#45/156)
- LFM3-1.7B public-lane score: 71.7 (#76/156)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | LFM3-1.7B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 79.3% | 73.0% | Granite 4.2 8B |
| IFEval | Coming soon | 96.7% | Coming soon |
| Multi-IF | Coming soon | 89.10% | Coming soon |
| IFStruct | Coming soon | 93.72% | Coming soon |

### Mathematics

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: Coming soon
- LFM3-1.7B public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | LFM3-1.7B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| AIME 2025 | 86.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| HMMT Feb 2025 | 78.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Granite 4.2 8B or LFM3-1.7B?

Granite 4.2 8B 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 LFM3-1.7B?

The widest category gap is in instruction following, where the averages are 86.5 for Granite 4.2 8B and 71.7 for LFM3-1.7B.

### 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 LFM3-1.7B cover on BenchLM?

LFM3-1.7B currently has 24 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)
- [LFM3-1.7B vs Granite 4.2 30B](/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-lfm3-1-7b)
- [Granite 4.2 8B vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-granite-4-2-8b)
- [LFM3-1.7B vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-lfm3-1-7b)

## Explore More

- [Granite 4.2 8B profile](/models/granite-4-2-8b)
- [LFM3-1.7B profile](/models/lfm3-1-7b)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)