Model comparison

GPT-4.1 vs Granite 3.1 8b Instruct

GPT-4.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 35.9 to 32.4 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 13 shared benchmarks.

GPT-4.1 OpenAI

35.9

Rank #219 Confirmed

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct IBM

32.4

Rank #258 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 13 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-4.1 scores higher in 6 categories and Granite 3.1 8b Instruct in 3 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in writing & preference, where GPT-4.1 leads 57.6 to 35.5.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard: 54% for GPT-4.1 and 27.1% for Granite 3.1 8b Instruct.
  • Granite 3.1 8b Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GPT-4.1 and Granite 3.1 8b Instruct specifications
GPT-4.1Granite 3.1 8b Instruct
ProviderOpenAIIBM
Noometry Index35.932.4
Released2025-04-14—
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M—
Max output33K—
Input $ / M tokens$2—
Output $ / M tokens$8—
Results tracked5213

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Category by category

Coding Too close to call

GPT-4.1: 34.4 (#238), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 34.5 (#233)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1Granite 3.1 8b Instruct
LMArena Coding13911186
SWE-bench Verified48.5%—
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)39.6%—
Aider Polyglot52.4%—
WeirdML39%—
CadEval42%—
ALE-Bench558.1—

Agentic & Tool Use GPT-4.1 leads

GPT-4.1: 34.7 (#43), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 24.1 (#120)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1Granite 3.1 8b Instruct
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard54%27.1%

Reasoning Granite 3.1 8b Instruct leads

GPT-4.1: 11.7 (#339), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 22.1 (#207)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1Granite 3.1 8b Instruct
LMArena Hard Prompts13841145
ARC-AGI-20.4%—
SimpleBench27%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark52.3%—
ARC-AGI-15.5%—
Chess Puzzles6%—
EnigmaEval2.2%—
DTBench68.3%—
LMCA25.6%—
Epoch Capabilities Index136.78—
ForecastBench61.5—

Math Granite 3.1 8b Instruct leads

GPT-4.1: 22.3 (#280), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 33.0 (#209)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1Granite 3.1 8b Instruct
LMArena Math13701152
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)6%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202538.3%—
Omni-MATH47.1%—
MATH Level 583%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)5.5%—
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)0%—

Knowledge GPT-4.1 leads

GPT-4.1: 37.1 (#160), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 31.1 (#220)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1Granite 3.1 8b Instruct
LMArena Expert13641142
GPQA Diamond66.9%—
Humanity's Last Exam5.4%—
SimpleQA Verified31.1%—
MMLU-Pro81.1%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate5.6%—
GPQA (HELM)65.9%—

Multimodal Not comparable

GPT-4.1: 38.2 (#67), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1Granite 3.1 8b Instruct
LMArena Vision1211—
GeoBench72%—

Multilingual GPT-4.1 leads

GPT-4.1: 49.4 (#133), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 30.9 (#260)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1Granite 3.1 8b Instruct
LMArena Non-English13701099
LMArena Chinese13821145
LMArena Russian13771092
LMArena French1382—
LMArena German1381—
LMArena Japanese1319—
LMArena Korean1339—
LMArena Spanish1376—

Instruction Following GPT-4.1 leads

GPT-4.1: 71.3 (#153), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 58.6 (#259)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1Granite 3.1 8b Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following13671131
IFEval83.8%—

Long Context GPT-4.1 leads

GPT-4.1: 40.0 (#163), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 35.2 (#241)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1Granite 3.1 8b Instruct
LMArena Longer Query13851162
Fiction.LiveBench63.9%—

Writing & Preference GPT-4.1 leads

GPT-4.1: 57.6 (#125), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 35.5 (#266)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1Granite 3.1 8b Instruct
LMArena Text13831150
LMArena Creative Writing13631129
LMArena Multi-Turn13981108
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1420—
WildBench85.4%—

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-4.1 better than Granite 3.1 8b Instruct?

GPT-4.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 35.9 to 32.4 on the Noometry Index.

Is GPT-4.1 or Granite 3.1 8b Instruct better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (34.4 vs 34.5); test both on your own repository before choosing.

How many benchmarks do GPT-4.1 and Granite 3.1 8b Instruct share?

13 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-4.1 has 52 scored results on Noometry and Granite 3.1 8b Instruct has 13.

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