Model comparison

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite vs Granite 3.0 8b Instruct

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.4 to 31.1 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Google

40.4

Rank #141 Confirmed

Granite 3.0 8b Instruct IBM

31.1

Rank #266 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite scores higher in 8 categories and Granite 3.0 8b Instruct in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads 61.0 to 31.2.
  • Granite 3.0 8b Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and Granite 3.0 8b Instruct specifications
Gemini 3.1 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
ProviderGoogleIBM
Noometry Index40.431.1
Released2026-03-03—
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M—
Max output66K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.25—
Output $ / M tokens$1.50—
Results tracked3814

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 37.5 (#179), Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 29.1 (#297)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
LMArena Coding14001113
LMArena WebDev1256—
SciCode41.9%—
WeirdML52.2%—
BigCodeBench Instruct—29.3%
BigCodeBench Complete—35.4%
ALE-Bench797.73—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 29.9 (#72), Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
DeepResearch Bench37.3%—

Reasoning Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 22.3 (#181), Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 20.0 (#227)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
LMArena Hard Prompts14071092
Kagi LLM Benchmark67.2%—
NYT Connections (extended)8.2%—
CritPt1.1%—
Chess Puzzles25%—
EnigmaEval3%—
Thematic Generalization63.3%—
DTBench76.8%—
LMCA35%—
Epoch Capabilities Index144.45—
ForecastBench54.4—

Math Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 39.5 (#82), Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 30.3 (#211)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
LMArena Math14271143
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)27.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202580%—

Knowledge Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 41.7 (#95), Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 29.1 (#233)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
LMArena Expert13971087
GPQA Diamond81.8%—
Humanity's Last Exam8.6%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate8.2%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 38.7 (#57), Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
LMArena Vision1240—

Multilingual Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 52.5 (#82), Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 27.4 (#271)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
LMArena Non-English14101037
LMArena Chinese14611063
LMArena Russian14201060
LMArena French1423—
LMArena German1429—
LMArena Japanese1411—
LMArena Korean1393—
LMArena Spanish1420—

Instruction Following Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 72.9 (#126), Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 56.2 (#271)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following13761088

Long Context Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 42.5 (#117), Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 34.0 (#247)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
LMArena Longer Query13941122

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 61.0 (#90), Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 31.2 (#280)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
LMArena Text14161096
LMArena Creative Writing14011071
LMArena Multi-Turn14171063

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite better than Granite 3.0 8b Instruct?

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.4 to 31.1 on the Noometry Index.

Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or Granite 3.0 8b Instruct better for coding?

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 37.5 versus 29.1 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and Granite 3.0 8b Instruct share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite has 38 scored results on Noometry and Granite 3.0 8b Instruct has 14.

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