Model comparison

Gemma 3 12B vs Granite 4.2 8B

Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified October 12, 2026. 10 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 3 12B

Google

32.1

Rank #262 Confirmed

Granite 4.2 8B IBM

40.5

Rank #148 Confirmed

Summary

They share 10 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 1 category and Granite 4.2 8B in 6 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in knowledge, where Granite 4.2 8B leads 38.4 to 26.5.
Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.06 / $0.25 for Granite 4.2 8B.

Side by side

Gemma 3 12B and Granite 4.2 8B specifications
	Gemma 3 12B	Granite 4.2 8B
Provider	Google	IBM
Noometry Index	32.1	40.5
Released	2025-03-12	—
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	131K	131K
Max output	8K	118K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.05	$0.06
Output $ / M tokens	$0.15	$0.25
Results tracked	24	11

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Category by category

Coding Granite 4.2 8B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280), Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Coding	1281	1380
SciCode	17.4%	—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108), Granite 4.2 8B: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Granite 4.2 8B
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard	30.4%	—

Reasoning Granite 4.2 8B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313), Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Hard Prompts	1309	1329
CritPt	0%	—
Chess Puzzles	0%	—
DTBench	48.8%	—
LMCA	4.5%	—
Epoch Capabilities Index	123.5	—

Math Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279), Granite 4.2 8B: —

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Granite 4.2 8B
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	16.7%	—
LMArena Math	1307	—

Knowledge Granite 4.2 8B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257), Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Expert	1248	1384
GPQA Diamond	39.5%	—
Vectara Hallucination Rate	4.4%	—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: —, Granite 4.2 8B: —

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Granite 4.2 8B
MindCube	46.7%	—

Multilingual Gemma 3 12B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165), Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Non-English	1318	1302
LMArena Russian	1335	1285
LMArena Chinese	—	1366
LMArena German	1370	—

Instruction Following Too close to call

Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186), Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Instruction Following	1299	1301

Long Context Too close to call

Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162), Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Longer Query	1317	1324

Writing & Preference Granite 4.2 8B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209), Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Text	1334	1320
LMArena Creative Writing	1331	1236
LMArena Multi-Turn	1334	1301
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	1126	—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 3 12B better than Granite 4.2 8B?

Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Granite 4.2 8B?

Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Granite 4.2 8B lists at $0.06 and $0.25.

Is Gemma 3 12B or Granite 4.2 8B better for coding?

Granite 4.2 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.5 versus 31.7 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 131K tokens.

How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Granite 4.2 8B share?

10 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 8B has 11.