Model comparison
Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Granite 3.1 8b Instruct
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 60.5 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.
Summary
- The widest gap is in math, where Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads 88.7 to 30.4.
- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | IBM |
| Noometry Index | 60.5 | 31.8 |
| Released | 2026-09-28 | — |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 1M | — |
| Max output | 128K | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | $2 | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | $10 | — |
| Results tracked | 16 | 13 |
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Category by category
Coding Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 65.5 (#6), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 33.9 (#232)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierCode | 52.1% | — |
| CursorBench | 55.5% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1699 | — |
| FrontierSWE | 61.9% | — |
| SciCode | 61% | — |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1186 |
| ALE-Bench | 1,819 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 44.9 (#14), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 23.9 (#113)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 75.5% | — |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 27.1% |
Reasoning Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 52.4 (#29), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 21.2 (#204)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 31.4% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1146 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 65% | — |
Math Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 88.7 (#4), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 30.4 (#210)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 88.8% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 80.5% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 100% | — |
| ProofBench | 100% | — |
| LMArena Math | — | 1152 |
Knowledge Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#11), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 30.6 (#218)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 95.6% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 46.5% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1142 |
Multimodal Not comparable
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 53.2 (#5), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: —
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Furniture Assembly | 75% | — |
Multilingual Not comparable
Claude Sonnet 5.5: —, Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 31.1 (#255)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1099 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1145 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1092 |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Claude Sonnet 5.5: —, Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 58.9 (#254)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1131 |
Long Context Not comparable
Claude Sonnet 5.5: —, Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 35.2 (#236)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1162 |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Claude Sonnet 5.5: —, Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 35.7 (#261)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1150 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1129 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1108 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 better than Granite 3.1 8b Instruct?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 60.5 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index.
Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Granite 3.1 8b Instruct better for coding?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 65.5 versus 33.9 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Granite 3.1 8b Instruct share?
0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Claude Sonnet 5.5 has 16 scored results on Noometry and Granite 3.1 8b Instruct has 13.