Noometry

Model comparison

Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Granite 4.2 3b

Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 39.0 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.6 Flash Google

54.1

Rank #30 Confirmed

Granite 4.2 3b IBM

39.0

Rank #163 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher in 7 categories and Granite 4.2 3b in 0 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.6 Flash leads 58.9 to 25.0.
  • Granite 4.2 3b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
ProviderGoogleIBM
Noometry Index54.139.0
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: 49.6 (#45), Granite 4.2 3b: 39.4 (#146)

BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Coding14921363
DeepSWE46.7%—
FrontierCode34.4%—
LMArena WebDev1536—
SciCode52.7%—
WeirdML56.1%—
ALE-Bench715.52—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 32.4 (#56), Granite 4.2 3b: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
APEX-Agents46.9%—
GDP.pdf14%—

Reasoning Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 58.9 (#20), Granite 4.2 3b: 25.0 (#136)

BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Hard Prompts14861308
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 Index154.36—

Math Not comparable

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 57.0 (#33), Granite 4.2 3b: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)58.9%—
FrontierMath Tier 422%—
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions70.8%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202594.2%—
ProofBench36%—
LMArena Math1504—

Knowledge Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 67.8 (#7), Granite 4.2 3b: 35.6 (#169)

BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Expert14891313
GPQA Diamond94.1%—
SimpleQA Verified66.2%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 38.7 (#55), Granite 4.2 3b: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Vision1297—
Blueprint-Bench 231.2%—
Furniture Assembly23.3%—
LMArena Document1456—

Multilingual Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 56.8 (#17), Granite 4.2 3b: 42.4 (#193)

BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Non-English14701268
LMArena Chinese15301268
LMArena Russian14901249
LMArena French1501—
LMArena German1478—
LMArena Japanese1477—
LMArena Korean1435—
LMArena Spanish1477—

Instruction Following Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 77.2 (#27), Granite 4.2 3b: 67.2 (#195)

BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Instruction Following14671271

Long Context Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 45.1 (#47), Granite 4.2 3b: 39.3 (#179)

BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Longer Query14751293

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.6 Flash leads

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 68.3 (#26), Granite 4.2 3b: 47.9 (#202)

BenchmarkGemini 3.6 FlashGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Text14781295
LMArena Creative Writing14641215
LMArena Multi-Turn14811293
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1604—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.6 Flash better than Granite 4.2 3b?

Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 39.0 on the Noometry Index.

Is Gemini 3.6 Flash or Granite 4.2 3b better for coding?

Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 49.6 versus 39.4 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.6 Flash and Granite 4.2 3b share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.6 Flash has 46 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 3b has 11.

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