Model comparison
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite vs Granite 3.1 2b Instruct
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.8 to 33.2 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.
Summary
- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite scores higher in 8 categories and Granite 3.1 2b Instruct in 0 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads 60.9 to 34.1.
- Granite 3.1 2b Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 3.1 2b Instruct | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | |
| Noometry Index | 40.8 | 33.2 |
| Released | 2026-03-03 | — |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 1.05M | — |
| Max output | 66K | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.25 | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.50 | — |
| Results tracked | 38 | 12 |
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Category by category
Coding Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 37.8 (#188), Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 33.4 (#257)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 3.1 2b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1400 | 1149 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1256 | — |
| SciCode | 41.9% | — |
| WeirdML | 52.2% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 797.73 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 30.2 (#79), Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 3.1 2b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| DeepResearch Bench | 37.3% | — |
Reasoning Too close to call
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 22.9 (#186), Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 22.0 (#209)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 3.1 2b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1407 | 1138 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 67.2% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 8.2% | — |
| CritPt | 1.1% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 25% | — |
| EnigmaEval | 3% | — |
| Thematic Generalization | 63.3% | — |
| DTBench | 76.8% | — |
| LMCA | 35% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 144.47 | — |
| ForecastBench | 54.4 | — |
Math Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 40.7 (#90), Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 33.1 (#206)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 3.1 2b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1428 | 1159 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 27.7% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 80% | — |
Knowledge Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 41.9 (#104), Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 30.8 (#224)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 3.1 2b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1398 | 1131 |
| GPQA Diamond | 81.8% | — |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 8.6% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 8.2% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 39.4 (#60), Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 3.1 2b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1240 | — |
Multilingual Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 52.3 (#86), Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 29.1 (#269)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 3.1 2b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1411 | 1068 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1461 | 1139 |
| LMArena Russian | 1420 | 1063 |
| LMArena French | 1424 | — |
| LMArena German | 1429 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1413 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1392 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1421 | — |
Instruction Following Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 72.7 (#131), Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 57.7 (#264)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 3.1 2b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1377 | 1116 |
Long Context Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 42.5 (#122), Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 35.0 (#244)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 3.1 2b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1394 | 1155 |
Writing & Preference Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 60.9 (#94), Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 34.1 (#274)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 3.1 2b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1416 | 1127 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1401 | 1116 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1417 | 1099 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite better than Granite 3.1 2b Instruct?
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.8 to 33.2 on the Noometry Index.
Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or Granite 3.1 2b Instruct better for coding?
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 37.8 versus 33.4 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and Granite 3.1 2b Instruct share?
12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite has 38 scored results on Noometry and Granite 3.1 2b Instruct has 12.