Model comparison
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite vs Granite 4.2 8B
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and Granite 4.2 8B score almost the same on the Noometry Index (40.4 vs 40.0), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
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 8B in 2 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads 61.0 to 49.8.
- Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $0.25 / $1.50 for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite.
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 131K.
- Granite 4.2 8B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 8B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | |
| Noometry Index | 40.4 | 40.0 |
| Released | 2026-03-03 | — |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 1.05M | 131K |
| Max output | 66K | 118K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.25 | $0.06 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.50 | $0.25 |
| Results tracked | 38 | 11 |
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Category by category
Coding Granite 4.2 8B leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 37.5 (#179), Granite 4.2 8B: 39.9 (#138)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1400 | 1379 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1256 | — |
| SciCode | 41.9% | — |
| WeirdML | 52.2% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 797.73 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 29.9 (#72), Granite 4.2 8B: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| DeepResearch Bench | 37.3% | — |
Reasoning Granite 4.2 8B leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 22.3 (#181), Granite 4.2 8B: 25.5 (#130)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1407 | 1327 |
| 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 | 144.45 | — |
| ForecastBench | 54.4 | — |
Math Not comparable
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 39.5 (#82), Granite 4.2 8B: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 27.7% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 80% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1427 | — |
Knowledge Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 41.7 (#95), Granite 4.2 8B: 37.7 (#144)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1397 | 1380 |
| GPQA Diamond | 81.8% | — |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 8.6% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 8.2% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 38.7 (#57), Granite 4.2 8B: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1240 | — |
Multilingual Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 52.5 (#82), Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#173)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1410 | 1299 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1461 | 1361 |
| LMArena Russian | 1420 | 1283 |
| LMArena French | 1423 | — |
| LMArena German | 1429 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1411 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1393 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1420 | — |
Instruction Following Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 72.9 (#126), Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#183)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1376 | 1298 |
Long Context Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 42.5 (#117), Granite 4.2 8B: 40.2 (#154)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1394 | 1323 |
Writing & Preference Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 61.0 (#90), Granite 4.2 8B: 49.8 (#183)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1416 | 1319 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1401 | 1238 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1417 | 1299 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite better than Granite 4.2 8B?
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and Granite 4.2 8B score almost the same on the Noometry Index (40.4 vs 40.0), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite 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; Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite lists at $0.25 and $1.50.
Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or Granite 4.2 8B better for coding?
Granite 4.2 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.9 versus 37.5 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite does, with 1.05M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and Granite 4.2 8B share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite has 38 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 8B has 11.