Model comparison

Granite 4.2 3b vs Mistral

Granite 4.2 3b is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.0 to 29.4 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.

Granite 4.2 3b IBM

39.0

Rank #163 Confirmed

Mistral Mistral AI

29.4

Rank #297 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 3b scores higher in 7 categories and Mistral in 0 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in knowledge, where Granite 4.2 3b leads 35.6 to 16.3.
  • Granite 4.2 3b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Granite 4.2 3b and Mistral specifications
Granite 4.2 3bMistral
ProviderIBMMistral AI
Noometry Index39.029.4
Released——
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window——
Max output——
Input $ / M tokens——
Output $ / M tokens——
Results tracked1122

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Category by category

Coding Granite 4.2 3b leads

Granite 4.2 3b: 39.4 (#146), Mistral: 33.2 (#249)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 3bMistral
LMArena Coding13631162

Reasoning Granite 4.2 3b leads

Granite 4.2 3b: 25.0 (#136), Mistral: 21.3 (#199)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 3bMistral
LMArena Hard Prompts13081149

Math Not comparable

Granite 4.2 3b: —, Mistral: 20.5 (#275)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 3bMistral
Omni-MATH—7.2%
LMArena Math—1180

Knowledge Granite 4.2 3b leads

Granite 4.2 3b: 35.6 (#169), Mistral: 16.3 (#283)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 3bMistral
LMArena Expert13131125
MMLU-Pro—27.7%
GPQA (HELM)—30.3%

Multilingual Granite 4.2 3b leads

Granite 4.2 3b: 42.4 (#193), Mistral: 33.0 (#249)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 3bMistral
LMArena Non-English12681129
LMArena Chinese12681109
LMArena Russian12491168
LMArena French—1179
LMArena German—1155
LMArena Japanese—1012
LMArena Korean—1032
LMArena Spanish—1143

Instruction Following Granite 4.2 3b leads

Granite 4.2 3b: 67.2 (#195), Mistral: 52.9 (#283)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 3bMistral
LMArena Instruction Following12711152
IFEval—56.8%

Long Context Granite 4.2 3b leads

Granite 4.2 3b: 39.3 (#179), Mistral: 35.0 (#240)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 3bMistral
LMArena Longer Query12931154

Writing & Preference Granite 4.2 3b leads

Granite 4.2 3b: 47.9 (#202), Mistral: 37.2 (#255)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 3bMistral
LMArena Text12951165
LMArena Creative Writing12151158
LMArena Multi-Turn12931147
WildBench—66%

Frequently asked questions

Is Granite 4.2 3b better than Mistral?

Granite 4.2 3b is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.0 to 29.4 on the Noometry Index.

Is Granite 4.2 3b or Mistral better for coding?

Granite 4.2 3b scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.4 versus 33.2 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 3b and Mistral share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 3b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Mistral has 22.

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