Model comparison
Granite 3.0 2b Instruct vs Mistral Small 3
Granite 3.0 2b Instruct and Mistral Small 3 score almost the same on the Noometry Index (30.8 vs 31.2), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Last verified . 13 shared benchmarks.
Mistral AISummary
- They share 13 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 3.0 2b Instruct scores higher in 3 categories and Mistral Small 3 in 5 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Granite 3.0 2b Instruct leads 32.2 to 16.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is BigCodeBench Instruct: 20.5% for Granite 3.0 2b Instruct and 45.3% for Mistral Small 3.
Side by side
| Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Mistral Small 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 30.8 | 31.2 |
| Released | — | 2025-01-30 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | — | 33K |
| Max output | — | 16K |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | $0.05 |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | $0.08 |
| Results tracked | 13 | 24 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Mistral Small 3 leads
Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 28.3 (#316), Mistral Small 3: 36.5 (#207)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 20.5% | 45.3% |
| LMArena Coding | 1090 | 1246 |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 50.4% |
Reasoning Granite 3.0 2b Instruct leads
Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 20.5 (#235), Mistral Small 3: 18.9 (#273)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1073 | 1233 |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 0% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 127.07 |
Math Granite 3.0 2b Instruct leads
Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 32.2 (#217), Mistral Small 3: 16.3 (#295)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1117 | 1240 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 6.7% |
Knowledge Granite 3.0 2b Instruct leads
Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 29.0 (#241), Mistral Small 3: 25.1 (#263)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1064 | 1202 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 47.3% |
| Confabulations | — | 25.2% |
Multilingual Mistral Small 3 leads
Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 27.0 (#278), Mistral Small 3: 37.3 (#236)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1033 | 1198 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1070 | 1204 |
| LMArena Russian | 1045 | 1216 |
| LMArena French | — | 1203 |
| LMArena German | — | 1211 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1111 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1188 |
Instruction Following Mistral Small 3 leads
Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 53.9 (#284), Mistral Small 3: 63.7 (#229)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1056 | 1214 |
Long Context Mistral Small 3 leads
Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 32.5 (#268), Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#211)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1070 | 1246 |
Writing & Preference Mistral Small 3 leads
Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 29.6 (#292), Mistral Small 3: 32.2 (#280)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1080 | 1234 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1046 | 1195 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1053 | 1217 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 707 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 3.0 2b Instruct better than Mistral Small 3?
Granite 3.0 2b Instruct and Mistral Small 3 score almost the same on the Noometry Index (30.8 vs 31.2), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Is Granite 3.0 2b Instruct or Mistral Small 3 better for coding?
Mistral Small 3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 36.5 versus 28.3 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Granite 3.0 2b Instruct and Mistral Small 3 share?
13 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 3.0 2b Instruct has 13 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3 has 24.