Model comparison

Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Granite 4.2 3b

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 60.5 to 39.0 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 Anthropic

60.5

Rank #10 Confirmed

Granite 4.2 3b IBM

39.0

Rank #163 Confirmed

Summary

  • The widest gap is in knowledge, where Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads 66.0 to 35.6.
  • Granite 4.2 3b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Granite 4.2 3b specifications
Claude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 3b
ProviderAnthropicIBM
Noometry Index60.539.0
Released2026-09-28—
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1M—
Max output128K—
Input $ / M tokens$2—
Output $ / M tokens$10—
Results tracked1611

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Category by category

Coding Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 65.5 (#6), Granite 4.2 3b: 39.4 (#146)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 3b
FrontierCode52.1%—
CursorBench55.5%—
LMArena WebDev1699—
FrontierSWE61.9%—
SciCode61%—
LMArena Coding—1363
ALE-Bench1,819—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 44.9 (#14), Granite 4.2 3b: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 3b
APEX-Agents75.5%—

Reasoning Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 52.4 (#29), Granite 4.2 3b: 25.0 (#136)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 3b
CritPt31.4%—
LMArena Hard Prompts—1308
Mystery Game Puzzles65%—

Math Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 88.7 (#4), Granite 4.2 3b: —

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 3b
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)88.8%—
FrontierMath Tier 480.5%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025100%—
ProofBench100%—

Knowledge Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#11), Granite 4.2 3b: 35.6 (#169)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 3b
GPQA Diamond95.6%—
SimpleQA Verified46.5%—
LMArena Expert—1313

Multimodal Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 53.2 (#5), Granite 4.2 3b: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 3b
Furniture Assembly75%—

Multilingual Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: —, Granite 4.2 3b: 42.4 (#193)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 3b
LMArena Non-English—1268
LMArena Chinese—1268
LMArena Russian—1249

Instruction Following Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: —, Granite 4.2 3b: 67.2 (#195)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 3b
LMArena Instruction Following—1271

Long Context Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: —, Granite 4.2 3b: 39.3 (#179)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 3b
LMArena Longer Query—1293

Writing & Preference Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: —, Granite 4.2 3b: 47.9 (#202)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 3b
LMArena Text—1295
LMArena Creative Writing—1215
LMArena Multi-Turn—1293

Frequently asked questions

Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 better than Granite 4.2 3b?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 60.5 to 39.0 on the Noometry Index.

Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Granite 4.2 3b better for coding?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 65.5 versus 39.4 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Granite 4.2 3b share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Claude Sonnet 5.5 has 16 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 3b has 11.

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