Model comparison

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Granite 4.2 30b

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Granite 4.2 30b score almost the same on the Noometry Index (41.5 vs 41.8), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite Google

41.5

Rank #133 Confirmed

Granite 4.2 30b IBM

41.8

Rank #130 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher in 6 categories and Granite 4.2 30b in 1 category; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in knowledge, where Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads 50.1 to 39.1.
  • Granite 4.2 30b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Granite 4.2 30b specifications
Gemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 4.2 30b
ProviderGoogleIBM
Noometry Index41.541.8
Released2026-07-21—
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M—
Max output66K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.30—
Output $ / M tokens$2.50—
Results tracked3911

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 42.4 (#104), Granite 4.2 30b: 41.0 (#126)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Coding14531396
LMArena WebDev1440—
SciCode41.3%—
WeirdML39%—
ALE-Bench765.27—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.7 (#107), Granite 4.2 30b: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 4.2 30b
APEX-Agents29.3%—
GDP.pdf10%—

Reasoning Too close to call

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 27.8 (#114), Granite 4.2 30b: 27.8 (#112)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Hard Prompts14411374
ARC-AGI-210.3%—
NYT Connections (extended)60.4%—
ARC-AGI-153.5%—
CritPt0%—
Chess Puzzles22%—
Mystery Game Puzzles19%—
DTBench83.5%—
LMCA37.6%—
Epoch Capabilities Index145.13—

Math Not comparable

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.9 (#264), Granite 4.2 30b: —

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 4.2 30b
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)26%—
FrontierMath Tier 40%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202571.1%—
ProofBench13%—
LMArena Math1433—

Knowledge Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 50.1 (#72), Granite 4.2 30b: 39.1 (#138)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Expert14351406
GPQA Diamond83.3%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 41.1 (#40), Granite 4.2 30b: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Vision1268—

Multilingual Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 53.5 (#63), Granite 4.2 30b: 47.3 (#151)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Non-English14271340
LMArena Chinese14691414
LMArena Russian14431343
LMArena French1451—
LMArena German1454—
LMArena Japanese1427—
LMArena Korean1407—
LMArena Spanish1442—

Instruction Following Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 74.8 (#85), Granite 4.2 30b: 71.2 (#155)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Instruction Following14201347

Long Context Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 43.9 (#84), Granite 4.2 30b: 41.4 (#140)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Longer Query14351359

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 64.2 (#57), Granite 4.2 30b: 53.8 (#156)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Text14351361
LMArena Creative Writing14201288
LMArena Multi-Turn14451339
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1559—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite better than Granite 4.2 30b?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Granite 4.2 30b score almost the same on the Noometry Index (41.5 vs 41.8), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or Granite 4.2 30b better for coding?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 41.0 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Granite 4.2 30b share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has 39 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 30b has 11.

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