Model comparison

Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Granite 4.2 3b

Gemini 3 Flash Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 52.3 to 39.4 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3 Flash Preview Google

52.3

Rank #40 Confirmed

Granite 4.2 3b IBM

39.4

Rank #169 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3 Flash Preview 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 Flash Preview leads 49.2 to 26.0.
  • Granite 4.2 3b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 3 Flash Preview and Granite 4.2 3b specifications
Gemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 4.2 3b
ProviderGoogleIBM
Noometry Index52.339.4
Released2025-12-17—
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M—
Max output66K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.50—
Output $ / M tokens$3—
Results tracked5911

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 50.9 (#42), Granite 4.2 3b: 40.0 (#151)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Coding14601361
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 Not comparable

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 38.7 (#29), Granite 4.2 3b: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 4.2 3b
Terminal-Bench64.3%—
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 4.2 3b: 26.0 (#138)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Hard Prompts14651306
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 Not comparable

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 51.7 (#55), Granite 4.2 3b: —

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 4.2 3b
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)51.2%—
FrontierMath Tier 417.1%—
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions67.6%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202595.6%—
ProofBench15%—
LMArena Math1473—
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 4.2 3b: 36.3 (#171)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Expert14621315
GPQA Diamond89.4%—
SimpleQA Verified66.8%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate13.5%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 45.5 (#16), Granite 4.2 3b: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Vision1285—
GeoBench88%—
VPCT72.6%—
Blueprint-Bench 20%—
LMArena Document1413—

Multilingual Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 55.7 (#27), Granite 4.2 3b: 42.1 (#198)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Non-English14581268
LMArena Chinese15111269
LMArena Russian14801249
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 4.2 3b: 67.1 (#200)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Instruction Following14371273

Long Context Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 44.4 (#67), Granite 4.2 3b: 39.2 (#185)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Longer Query14521291

Writing & Preference Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads

Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 65.5 (#45), Granite 4.2 3b: 47.2 (#212)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3 Flash PreviewGranite 4.2 3b
LMArena Text14661293
LMArena Creative Writing14571205
LMArena Multi-Turn14711290

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3 Flash Preview better than Granite 4.2 3b?

Gemini 3 Flash Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 52.3 to 39.4 on the Noometry Index.

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

Gemini 3 Flash Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.9 versus 40.0 in the Noometry coding category.

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

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3 Flash Preview has 59 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 3b has 11.

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