Model comparison

Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Granite 4.2 30b

Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 41.8 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.6 Flash Google

54.1

Rank #33 Confirmed

Granite 4.2 30b IBM

41.8

Rank #130 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher in 7 categories and Granite 4.2 30b in 0 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.6 Flash leads 58.8 to 27.8.
  • Granite 4.2 30b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 3.6 Flash and Granite 4.2 30b specifications
Gemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 30b
ProviderGoogleIBM
Noometry Index54.141.8
Released2026-07-21—
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M—
Max output66K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.75—
Output $ / M tokens$3.75—
Results tracked4611

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 50.0 (#48), Granite 4.2 30b: 41.0 (#126)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Coding14911396
DeepSWE46.7%—
FrontierCode34.4%—
LMArena WebDev1538—
SciCode52.7%—
WeirdML56.1%—
ALE-Bench715.52—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 32.3 (#65), Granite 4.2 30b: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 30b
APEX-Agents46.9%—
GDP.pdf14%—

Reasoning Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 58.8 (#22), Granite 4.2 30b: 27.8 (#112)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Hard Prompts14851374
ARC-AGI-260.4%—
NYT Connections (extended)89%—
ARC-AGI-191.2%—
CritPt10.6%—
Chess Puzzles43%—
Mystery Game Puzzles30%—
DTBench95.5%—
LMCA44.9%—
Epoch Capabilities Index154.25—

Math Not comparable

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 57.3 (#40), Granite 4.2 30b: —

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 30b
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)58.9%—
FrontierMath Tier 422%—
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions70.8%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202594.2%—
ProofBench36%—
LMArena Math1505—

Knowledge Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 67.8 (#8), Granite 4.2 30b: 39.1 (#138)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Expert14881406
GPQA Diamond94.1%—
SimpleQA Verified66.2%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 38.5 (#64), Granite 4.2 30b: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Vision1298—
Blueprint-Bench 231.2%—
Furniture Assembly23.3%—
LMArena Document1456—

Multilingual Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 56.5 (#19), Granite 4.2 30b: 47.3 (#151)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Non-English14691340
LMArena Chinese15311414
LMArena Russian14871343
LMArena French1504—
LMArena German1478—
LMArena Japanese1476—
LMArena Korean1431—
LMArena Spanish1475—

Instruction Following Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 77.0 (#33), Granite 4.2 30b: 71.2 (#155)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Instruction Following14661347

Long Context Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 45.1 (#50), Granite 4.2 30b: 41.4 (#140)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Longer Query14741359

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 68.2 (#27), Granite 4.2 30b: 53.8 (#156)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Text14791361
LMArena Creative Writing14651288
LMArena Multi-Turn14811339
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1604—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.6 Flash better than Granite 4.2 30b?

Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 41.8 on the Noometry Index.

Is Gemini 3.6 Flash or Granite 4.2 30b better for coding?

Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.0 versus 41.0 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.6 Flash and Granite 4.2 30b share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.6 Flash has 46 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 30b has 11.

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