Noometry

Model comparison

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs Granite 4.2 8B

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.7 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.2 8B costs 42× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview Google

56.7

Rank #23 Confirmed

Granite 4.2 8B IBM

40.5

Rank #148 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview scores higher in 7 categories and Granite 4.2 8B in 0 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads 71.7 to 26.6.
  • Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $12 for Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview.
  • Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 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 Pro PreviewGranite 4.2 8B
ProviderGoogleIBM
Noometry Index56.740.5
Released2026-02-19—
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M131K
Max output66K118K
Input $ / M tokens$2$0.06
Output $ / M tokens$12$0.25
Results tracked7111

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 42.5 (#99), Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGranite 4.2 8B
LMArena Coding14841380
SWE-bench Verified75.6%—
DeepSWE11.7%—
LMArena WebDev1447—
SciCode58.9%—
GSO22.6%—
WeirdML72.1%—
MirrorCode8.9%—
ALE-Bench1,161—
AlgoTune2.02—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 37.7 (#34), Granite 4.2 8B: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGranite 4.2 8B
Terminal-Bench80.2%—
APEX-Agents35.3%—
τ²-bench Banking26%—
DeepResearch Bench47.8%—
PostTrainBench22%—
BALROG57%—
ExploitBench26.1%—
GBAEval0.8%—
GDP.pdf17%—
LMArena Search1211—
METR Time Horizons77%—
Vending-Bench 23,774—

Reasoning Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 71.7 (#12), Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGranite 4.2 8B
LMArena Hard Prompts14851329
ARC-AGI-277.1%—
SimpleBench79.6%—
NYT Connections (extended)97.4%—
ARC-AGI-198%—
CritPt17.7%—
Chess Puzzles55%—
EnigmaEval36.8%—
Thematic Generalization79.4%—
EBR-Bench14.3%—
Mystery Game Puzzles34%—
DTBench97.1%—
LMCA53.8%—
Epoch Capabilities Index154.77—
ForecastBench59—

Math Not comparable

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 62.1 (#34), Granite 4.2 8B: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGranite 4.2 8B
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)59.6%—
FrontierMath Tier 426.8%—
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions86.5%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202595.6%—
ProofBench26%—
LMArena Math1485—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)36.9%—
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)16.7%—

Knowledge Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 71.8 (#3), Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGranite 4.2 8B
LMArena Expert14851384
GPQA Diamond94.4%—
Humanity's Last Exam46.4%—
SimpleQA Verified73.5%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate10.4%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 37.9 (#69), Granite 4.2 8B: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGranite 4.2 8B
LMArena Vision1296—
Blueprint-Bench 226.5%—
Furniture Assembly26.7%—
LMArena Document1444—

Multilingual Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 57.0 (#12), Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGranite 4.2 8B
LMArena Non-English14771302
LMArena Chinese15291366
LMArena Russian14981285
LMArena French1487—
LMArena German1491—
LMArena Japanese1493—
LMArena Korean1455—
LMArena Spanish1479—

Instruction Following Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 77.0 (#32), Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGranite 4.2 8B
LMArena Instruction Following14661301

Long Context Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 47.4 (#18), Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGranite 4.2 8B
LMArena Longer Query14831324
CL-bench20.8%—
CL-bench Life16.9%—

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 66.1 (#37), Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGranite 4.2 8B
LMArena Text14811320
LMArena Creative Writing14821236
LMArena Multi-Turn14881301
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1491—
EQ-Bench 41142—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview better than Granite 4.2 8B?

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.7 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.2 8B costs 42× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 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 Pro Preview lists at $2 and $12.

Is Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview or Granite 4.2 8B better for coding?

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.5 versus 40.5 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview does, with 1.05M tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview and Granite 4.2 8B share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview has 71 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 8B has 11.

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