Model comparison
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite vs Granite 4.2 30b
Granite 4.2 30b is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.8 to 40.8 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.
GoogleSummary
- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite scores higher in 5 categories and Granite 4.2 30b in 2 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 53.8.
- Granite 4.2 30b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 30b | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | |
| Noometry Index | 40.8 | 41.8 |
| 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 | 11 |
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Category by category
Coding Granite 4.2 30b leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 37.8 (#188), Granite 4.2 30b: 41.0 (#126)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 30b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1400 | 1396 |
| 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 4.2 30b: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 30b |
|---|---|---|
| DeepResearch Bench | 37.3% | — |
Reasoning Granite 4.2 30b leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 22.9 (#186), Granite 4.2 30b: 27.8 (#112)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 30b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1407 | 1374 |
| 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 Not comparable
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 40.7 (#90), Granite 4.2 30b: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 30b |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 27.7% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 80% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1428 | — |
Knowledge Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 41.9 (#104), Granite 4.2 30b: 39.1 (#138)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 30b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1398 | 1406 |
| 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 4.2 30b: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 30b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1240 | — |
Multilingual Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 52.3 (#86), Granite 4.2 30b: 47.3 (#151)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 30b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1411 | 1340 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1461 | 1414 |
| LMArena Russian | 1420 | 1343 |
| 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 4.2 30b: 71.2 (#155)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 30b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1377 | 1347 |
Long Context Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 42.5 (#122), Granite 4.2 30b: 41.4 (#140)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 30b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1394 | 1359 |
Writing & Preference Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 60.9 (#94), Granite 4.2 30b: 53.8 (#156)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 30b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1416 | 1361 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1401 | 1288 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1417 | 1339 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite better than Granite 4.2 30b?
Granite 4.2 30b is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.8 to 40.8 on the Noometry Index.
Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or Granite 4.2 30b better for coding?
Granite 4.2 30b scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.0 versus 37.8 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and Granite 4.2 30b share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite has 38 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 30b has 11.