Model comparison

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Granite 3.0 8b Instruct

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.5 to 31.6 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite Google

41.5

Rank #133 Confirmed

Granite 3.0 8b Instruct IBM

31.6

Rank #270 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher in 7 categories and Granite 3.0 8b Instruct in 1 category; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads 64.2 to 31.1.
  • Granite 3.0 8b Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Granite 3.0 8b Instruct specifications
Gemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
ProviderGoogleIBM
Noometry Index41.531.6
Released2026-07-21—
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M—
Max output66K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.30—
Output $ / M tokens$2.50—
Results tracked3914

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 42.4 (#104), Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 29.7 (#301)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
LMArena Coding14531112
LMArena WebDev1440—
SciCode41.3%—
WeirdML39%—
BigCodeBench Instruct—29.3%
BigCodeBench Complete—35.4%
ALE-Bench765.27—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.7 (#107), Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
APEX-Agents29.3%—
GDP.pdf10%—

Reasoning Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 27.8 (#114), Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 20.9 (#230)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
LMArena Hard Prompts14411092
ARC-AGI-210.3%—
NYT Connections (extended)60.4%—
ARC-AGI-153.5%—
CritPt0%—
Chess Puzzles22%—
Mystery Game Puzzles19%—
DTBench83.5%—
LMCA37.6%—
Epoch Capabilities Index145.13—

Math Granite 3.0 8b Instruct leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.9 (#264), Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 32.8 (#210)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
LMArena Math14331143
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)26%—
FrontierMath Tier 40%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202571.1%—
ProofBench13%—

Knowledge Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 50.1 (#72), Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 29.6 (#236)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
LMArena Expert14351087
GPQA Diamond83.3%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 41.1 (#40), Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
LMArena Vision1268—

Multilingual Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 53.5 (#63), Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 27.2 (#276)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
LMArena Non-English14271037
LMArena Chinese14691063
LMArena Russian14431060
LMArena French1451—
LMArena German1454—
LMArena Japanese1427—
LMArena Korean1407—
LMArena Spanish1442—

Instruction Following Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 74.8 (#85), Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 56.0 (#276)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following14201088

Long Context Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 43.9 (#84), Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 34.0 (#252)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
LMArena Longer Query14351122

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 64.2 (#57), Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 31.1 (#285)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGranite 3.0 8b Instruct
LMArena Text14351096
LMArena Creative Writing14201071
LMArena Multi-Turn14451063
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1559—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite better than Granite 3.0 8b Instruct?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.5 to 31.6 on the Noometry Index.

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or Granite 3.0 8b Instruct better for coding?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 29.7 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Granite 3.0 8b Instruct share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has 39 scored results on Noometry and Granite 3.0 8b Instruct has 14.

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