# Granite 4.2 8B vs ZAYA1-8B

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Granite 4.2 8B and ZAYA1-8B across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/granite-4-2-8b-vs-zaya1-8b
- Last updated: October 15, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 5
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5.8

## Quick Verdict

ZAYA1-8B leads by point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence. Choose using the category evidence and your own workload tests.

## Summary

- ZAYA1-8B has the higher overall point estimate 34.43 to 33.4. 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 23.6 for ZAYA1-8B.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is IFBench in Instruction Following, with scores of 79.3% and 52.6%.
- ZAYA1-8B also has the larger context window at 131K.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Granite 4.2 8B | ZAYA1-8B |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | IBM | Zyphra |
| Type | Open Weight | Open Weight |
| Reasoning | Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Context | 128K | 131K |
| Overall Score | 33.4 | 34.43 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 14 | 11 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $0.00 / $0.00 | $0.00 / $0.00 |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 15.7 (Estimated · #113/127)
- ZAYA1-8B public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | ZAYA1-8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 20.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| τ³-bench results | 58.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| BFCL v4 | 52.4% | 39.2% | Granite 4.2 8B |

### Coding

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 17.2 (Estimated · #125/150)
- ZAYA1-8B public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | ZAYA1-8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 47.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE-bench Pro | 19.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE Multilingual | 30.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 20.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench v6 | 73.2% | 65.8% | Granite 4.2 8B |
| SciCode | 36.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 56.8 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)
- ZAYA1-8B public-lane score: Coming soon

### Knowledge

- Winner: Directional only
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 30.6 (Supported · #154/184)
- ZAYA1-8B public-lane score: 37.7 (Estimated · #125/184)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | ZAYA1-8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 64.1% | 71% | ZAYA1-8B |
| MMLU-Pro | 74.0% | 74.2% | ZAYA1-8B |
| GPQA-D | Coming soon | 71.0% | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Granite 4.2 8B
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 86.5 (#41/146)
- ZAYA1-8B public-lane score: 23.6 (#139/146)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | ZAYA1-8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 79.3% | 52.6% | Granite 4.2 8B |
| IFEval | Coming soon | 85.6% | Coming soon |

### Mathematics

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: Coming soon
- ZAYA1-8B public-lane score: 69.4 (Unranked · 4 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | ZAYA1-8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| AIME 2025 | 86.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| HMMT Feb 2025 | 78.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| AIME26 | Coming soon | 89.1% | Coming soon |
| HMMT Feb 2026 | Coming soon | 71.6% | Coming soon |
| IMOAnswerBench | Coming soon | 59.3% | Coming soon |
| Apex | Coming soon | 32.2% | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Granite 4.2 8B or ZAYA1-8B?

ZAYA1-8B 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 ZAYA1-8B?

The widest category gap is in instruction following, where the averages are 86.5 for Granite 4.2 8B and 23.6 for ZAYA1-8B.

### 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 ZAYA1-8B cover on BenchLM?

ZAYA1-8B currently has 11 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)
- [ZAYA1-8B vs Granite 4.2 30B](/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-zaya1-8b)
- [Granite 4.2 8B vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-granite-4-2-8b)
- [ZAYA1-8B vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-zaya1-8b)

## Explore More

- [Granite 4.2 8B profile](/models/granite-4-2-8b)
- [ZAYA1-8B profile](/models/zaya1-8b)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)