Model comparison

Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Granite 3.1 8b Instruct

Gemini 3 Flash Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 52.3 to 32.4 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3 Flash Preview Google

52.3

Rank #40 Confirmed

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct IBM

32.4

Rank #258 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3 Flash Preview scores higher in 9 categories and Granite 3.1 8b Instruct in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads 65.5 to 35.5.
  • Granite 3.1 8b Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 3 Flash Preview and Granite 3.1 8b Instruct specifications
Gemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 3.1 8b Instruct
ProviderGoogleIBM
Noometry Index52.332.4
Released2025-12-17—
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M—
Max output66K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.50—
Output $ / M tokens$3—
Results tracked5913

Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry

Category by category

Coding Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 50.9 (#42), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 34.5 (#233)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 3.1 8b Instruct
LMArena Coding14601186
SWE-bench Verified75.4%—
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)75.8%—
LMArena WebDev1439—
SWE-bench Multilingual72.7%—
GSO9.8%—
WeirdML61.6%—
ALE-Bench1,367—

Agentic & Tool Use Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 38.7 (#29), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 24.1 (#120)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 3.1 8b Instruct
Terminal-Bench64.3%—
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard—27.1%
τ²-bench Airline82.5%—
τ²-bench Banking27.3%—
τ²-bench Retail76.8%—
τ²-bench Telecom91.2%—
DeepResearch Bench49.8%—
BALROG48.1%—
GDP.pdf10%—
LMArena Search1198—
Vending-Bench 23,635—

Reasoning Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 49.2 (#37), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 22.1 (#207)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 3.1 8b Instruct
LMArena Hard Prompts14651145
ARC-AGI-233.6%—
SimpleBench61.1%—
NYT Connections (extended)83.1%—
ARC-AGI-184.7%—
Chess Puzzles40%—
Mystery Game Puzzles26%—
DTBench89.1%—
LMCA43.1%—
Epoch Capabilities Index151.8—
ForecastBench58.5—

Math Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 51.7 (#55), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 33.0 (#209)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 3.1 8b Instruct
LMArena Math14731152
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)51.2%—
FrontierMath Tier 417.1%—
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions67.6%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202595.6%—
ProofBench15%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)35.6%—
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)4.2%—

Knowledge Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 58.8 (#33), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 31.1 (#220)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 3.1 8b Instruct
LMArena Expert14621142
GPQA Diamond89.4%—
SimpleQA Verified66.8%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate13.5%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 45.5 (#16), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 3.1 8b Instruct
LMArena Vision1285—
GeoBench88%—
VPCT72.6%—
Blueprint-Bench 20%—
LMArena Document1413—

Multilingual Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 55.7 (#27), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 30.9 (#260)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 3.1 8b Instruct
LMArena Non-English14581099
LMArena Chinese15111145
LMArena Russian14801092
LMArena French1477—
LMArena German1497—
LMArena Japanese1489—
LMArena Korean1443—
LMArena Spanish1469—

Instruction Following Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 75.7 (#56), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 58.6 (#259)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 3.1 8b Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following14371131

Long Context Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 44.4 (#67), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 35.2 (#241)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 3.1 8b Instruct
LMArena Longer Query14521162

Writing & Preference Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 65.5 (#45), Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 35.5 (#266)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 3.1 8b Instruct
LMArena Text14661150
LMArena Creative Writing14571129
LMArena Multi-Turn14711108

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3 Flash Preview better than Granite 3.1 8b Instruct?

Gemini 3 Flash Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 52.3 to 32.4 on the Noometry Index.

Is Gemini 3 Flash Preview or Granite 3.1 8b Instruct better for coding?

Gemini 3 Flash Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.9 versus 34.5 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3 Flash Preview and Granite 3.1 8b Instruct share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3 Flash Preview has 59 scored results on Noometry and Granite 3.1 8b Instruct has 13.

Related comparisons

Go deeper