Model comparison
Gemini 3.5 Flash vs Granite 4.2 8B
Gemini 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.2 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.2 8B costs 31× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.5 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.
GoogleSummary
- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.5 Flash scores higher in 7 categories and Granite 4.2 8B in 0 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.5 Flash leads 62.8 to 26.6.
- Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $1.50 / $9 for Gemini 3.5 Flash.
- Gemini 3.5 Flash accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 131K.
- Granite 4.2 8B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | Granite 4.2 8B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | |
| Noometry Index | 54.2 | 40.5 |
| Released | 2026-05-19 | — |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 1.05M | 131K |
| Max output | 66K | 118K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $1.50 | $0.06 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $9 | $0.25 |
| Results tracked | 54 | 11 |
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Category by category
Coding Gemini 3.5 Flash leads
Gemini 3.5 Flash: 49.4 (#49), Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1492 | 1380 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 79.3% | — |
| DeepSWE | 37.4% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1499 | — |
| SciCode | 53.1% | — |
| WeirdML | 62.6% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 911.02 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemini 3.5 Flash: 24.7 (#114), Granite 4.2 8B: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 27.5% | — |
| GBAEval | 6.7% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 14% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 5,396 | — |
Reasoning Gemini 3.5 Flash leads
Gemini 3.5 Flash: 62.8 (#18), Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1488 | 1329 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 72.1% | — |
| SimpleBench | 76.7% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 92.6% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 92.5% | — |
| CritPt | 13.1% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 50% | — |
| EnigmaEval | 25.4% | — |
| EBR-Bench | 4.8% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 32% | — |
| DTBench | 94.7% | — |
| LMCA | 47.1% | — |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 58.1% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 154.46 | — |
| ForecastBench | 59 | — |
Math Not comparable
Gemini 3.5 Flash: 60.7 (#36), Granite 4.2 8B: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 62.8% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 26.8% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 76.3% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 95.6% | — |
| ProofBench | 31% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1504 | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 39% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 14.6% | — |
Knowledge Gemini 3.5 Flash leads
Gemini 3.5 Flash: 66.3 (#11), Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1495 | 1384 |
| GPQA Diamond | 92.8% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 66.2% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemini 3.5 Flash: 45.7 (#15), Granite 4.2 8B: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1310 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 33.6% | — |
| LMArena Document | 1463 | — |
Multilingual Gemini 3.5 Flash leads
Gemini 3.5 Flash: 57.0 (#13), Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1476 | 1302 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1526 | 1366 |
| LMArena Russian | 1493 | 1285 |
| LMArena French | 1490 | — |
| LMArena German | 1492 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1486 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1451 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1480 | — |
Instruction Following Gemini 3.5 Flash leads
Gemini 3.5 Flash: 77.0 (#30), Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1467 | 1301 |
Long Context Gemini 3.5 Flash leads
Gemini 3.5 Flash: 45.4 (#38), Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1482 | 1324 |
Writing & Preference Gemini 3.5 Flash leads
Gemini 3.5 Flash: 65.5 (#47), Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1482 | 1320 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1470 | 1236 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1481 | 1301 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1087 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini 3.5 Flash better than Granite 4.2 8B?
Gemini 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.2 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.2 8B costs 31× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.5 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash or Granite 4.2 8B?
Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.5 Flash lists at $1.50 and $9.
Is Gemini 3.5 Flash or Granite 4.2 8B better for coding?
Gemini 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 49.4 versus 40.5 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 3.5 Flash does, with 1.05M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.5 Flash and Granite 4.2 8B share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.5 Flash has 54 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 8B has 11.