Noometry

Model comparison

Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Granite 4.2 3b

Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 39.4 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.6 Flash Google

54.1

Rank #33 Confirmed

Granite 4.2 3b IBM

39.4

Rank #169 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher in 7 categories and Granite 4.2 3b in 0 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.6 Flash leads 58.8 to 26.0.
  • Granite 4.2 3b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
ProviderGoogleIBM
Noometry Index54.139.4
Released2026-07-21—
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M—
Max output66K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.75—
Output $ / M tokens$3.75—
Results tracked4611

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 50.0 (#48), Granite 4.2 3b: 40.0 (#151)

BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Coding14911361
DeepSWE46.7%—
FrontierCode34.4%—
LMArena WebDev1538—
SciCode52.7%—
WeirdML56.1%—
ALE-Bench715.52—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 32.3 (#65), Granite 4.2 3b: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
APEX-Agents46.9%—
GDP.pdf14%—

Reasoning Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 58.8 (#22), Granite 4.2 3b: 26.0 (#138)

BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Hard Prompts14851306
ARC-AGI-260.4%—
NYT Connections (extended)89%—
ARC-AGI-191.2%—
CritPt10.6%—
Chess Puzzles43%—
Mystery Game Puzzles30%—
DTBench95.5%—
LMCA44.9%—
Epoch Capabilities Index154.25—

Math Not comparable

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 57.3 (#40), Granite 4.2 3b: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)58.9%—
FrontierMath Tier 422%—
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions70.8%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202594.2%—
ProofBench36%—
LMArena Math1505—

Knowledge Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 67.8 (#8), Granite 4.2 3b: 36.3 (#171)

BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Expert14881315
GPQA Diamond94.1%—
SimpleQA Verified66.2%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 38.5 (#64), Granite 4.2 3b: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Vision1298—
Blueprint-Bench 231.2%—
Furniture Assembly23.3%—
LMArena Document1456—

Multilingual Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 56.5 (#19), Granite 4.2 3b: 42.1 (#198)

BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Non-English14691268
LMArena Chinese15311269
LMArena Russian14871249
LMArena French1504—
LMArena German1478—
LMArena Japanese1476—
LMArena Korean1431—
LMArena Spanish1475—

Instruction Following Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 77.0 (#33), Granite 4.2 3b: 67.1 (#200)

BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Instruction Following14661273

Long Context Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 45.1 (#50), Granite 4.2 3b: 39.2 (#185)

BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Longer Query14741291

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 68.2 (#27), Granite 4.2 3b: 47.2 (#212)

BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Text14791293
LMArena Creative Writing14651205
LMArena Multi-Turn14811290
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1604—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.6 Flash better than Granite 4.2 3b?

Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 39.4 on the Noometry Index.

Is Gemini 3.6 Flash or Granite 4.2 3b better for coding?

Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.0 versus 40.0 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.6 Flash and Granite 4.2 3b share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.6 Flash has 46 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 3b has 11.

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