Model comparison
Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Granite 4.2 8B
Gemini 3 Flash Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 52.3 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.2 8B costs 10× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3 Flash Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.
GoogleSummary
- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3 Flash Preview scores higher in 7 categories and Granite 4.2 8B 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 26.6.
- Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $3 for Gemini 3 Flash Preview.
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 131K.
- Granite 4.2 8B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Granite 4.2 8B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | |
| Noometry Index | 52.3 | 40.5 |
| Released | 2025-12-17 | — |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 1.05M | 131K |
| Max output | 66K | 118K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.50 | $0.06 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $3 | $0.25 |
| Results tracked | 59 | 11 |
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Category by category
Coding Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads
Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 50.9 (#42), Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1460 | 1380 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 75.4% | — |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | 75.8% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1439 | — |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | 72.7% | — |
| GSO | 9.8% | — |
| WeirdML | 61.6% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 1,367 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 38.7 (#29), Granite 4.2 8B: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 64.3% | — |
| τ²-bench Airline | 82.5% | — |
| τ²-bench Banking | 27.3% | — |
| τ²-bench Retail | 76.8% | — |
| τ²-bench Telecom | 91.2% | — |
| DeepResearch Bench | 49.8% | — |
| BALROG | 48.1% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 10% | — |
| LMArena Search | 1198 | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 3,635 | — |
Reasoning Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads
Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 49.2 (#37), Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1465 | 1329 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 33.6% | — |
| SimpleBench | 61.1% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 83.1% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 84.7% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 40% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 26% | — |
| DTBench | 89.1% | — |
| LMCA | 43.1% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 151.8 | — |
| ForecastBench | 58.5 | — |
Math Not comparable
Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 51.7 (#55), Granite 4.2 8B: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 51.2% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 17.1% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 67.6% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 95.6% | — |
| ProofBench | 15% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1473 | — |
| 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 8B: 38.4 (#145)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1462 | 1384 |
| GPQA Diamond | 89.4% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 66.8% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 13.5% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 45.5 (#16), Granite 4.2 8B: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1285 | — |
| GeoBench | 88% | — |
| VPCT | 72.6% | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 0% | — |
| LMArena Document | 1413 | — |
Multilingual Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads
Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 55.7 (#27), Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1458 | 1302 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1511 | 1366 |
| LMArena Russian | 1480 | 1285 |
| LMArena French | 1477 | — |
| LMArena German | 1497 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1489 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1443 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1469 | — |
Instruction Following Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads
Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 75.7 (#56), Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1437 | 1301 |
Long Context Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads
Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 44.4 (#67), Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1452 | 1324 |
Writing & Preference Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads
Gemini 3 Flash Preview: 65.5 (#45), Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1466 | 1320 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1457 | 1236 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1471 | 1301 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini 3 Flash Preview better than Granite 4.2 8B?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 52.3 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.2 8B costs 10× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3 Flash Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Flash Preview or Granite 4.2 8B?
Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; Gemini 3 Flash Preview lists at $0.50 and $3.
Is Gemini 3 Flash Preview or Granite 4.2 8B better for coding?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.9 versus 40.5 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview does, with 1.05M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Gemini 3 Flash Preview and Granite 4.2 8B share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3 Flash Preview has 59 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 8B has 11.