Model comparison

Command R vs Granite 4.2 8B

Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 31.4 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 11 shared benchmarks.

Command R

Cohere

31.4

Rank #272 Confirmed

Granite 4.2 8B IBM

40.5

Rank #148 Confirmed

Summary

They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Command R scores higher in 0 categories and Granite 4.2 8B in 7 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in reasoning, where Granite 4.2 8B leads 26.6 to 13.8.
Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $0.15 / $0.60 for Command R.
Granite 4.2 8B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 128K.

Side by side

Command R and Granite 4.2 8B specifications
	Command R	Granite 4.2 8B
Provider	Cohere	IBM
Noometry Index	31.4	40.5
Released	2024-08-30	—
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	128K	131K
Max output	4K	118K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.15	$0.06
Output $ / M tokens	$0.60	$0.25
Results tracked	29	11

Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry

Category by category

Coding Granite 4.2 8B leads

Command R: 29.3 (#306), Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Command R	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Coding	1169	1380
BigCodeBench Instruct	37.1%	—
LiveBench Coding	17.9%	—
BigCodeBench Complete	45.2%	—

Reasoning Granite 4.2 8B leads

Command R: 13.8 (#331), Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Command R	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Hard Prompts	1164	1329
LiveBench Reasoning	21.9%	—
DTBench	46.4%	—
LiveBench Data Analysis	33.3%	—
LMCA	9.2%	—
LiveBench	27.5%	—

Math Not comparable

Command R: 28.0 (#246), Granite 4.2 8B: —

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Command R	Granite 4.2 8B
LiveBench Math	19.4%	—
LMArena Math	1155	—

Knowledge Granite 4.2 8B leads

Command R: 31.0 (#221), Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Command R	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Expert	1138	1384
MMLU	65.2%	—

Multilingual Granite 4.2 8B leads

Command R: 35.7 (#245), Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Command R	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Non-English	1174	1302
LMArena Chinese	1182	1366
LMArena Russian	1174	1285
LMArena French	1162	—
LMArena German	1176	—
LMArena Japanese	1143	—
LMArena Korean	1163	—
LMArena Spanish	1151	—

Instruction Following Granite 4.2 8B leads

Command R: 58.1 (#261), Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Command R	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Instruction Following	1167	1301
LiveBench Instruction Following	55.6%	—

Long Context Granite 4.2 8B leads

Command R: 36.3 (#231), Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Command R	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Longer Query	1198	1324

Writing & Preference Granite 4.2 8B leads

Command R: 38.2 (#254), Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Command R	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Text	1187	1320
LMArena Creative Writing	1170	1236
LMArena Multi-Turn	1163	1301
LiveBench Language	16.7%	—

Frequently asked questions

Is Command R better than Granite 4.2 8B?

Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 31.4 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, Command R or Granite 4.2 8B?

Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; Command R lists at $0.15 and $0.60.

Is Command R or Granite 4.2 8B better for coding?

Granite 4.2 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.5 versus 29.3 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Granite 4.2 8B does, with 131K tokens against 128K.

How many benchmarks do Command R and Granite 4.2 8B share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Command R has 29 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 8B has 11.