Model comparison

Gemma 3 27B vs Granite 4.2 30b

Granite 4.2 30b is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.4 to 30.5 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 3 27B Google

30.5

Rank #277 Confirmed

Granite 4.2 30b IBM

41.4

Rank #126 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 27B scores higher in 0 categories and Granite 4.2 30b in 7 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in coding, where Granite 4.2 30b leads 40.4 to 22.1.

Side by side

Gemma 3 27B and Granite 4.2 30b specifications
Gemma 3 27BGranite 4.2 30b
ProviderGoogleIBM
Noometry Index30.541.4
Released2025-03-11—
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window131K—
Max output8K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.08—
Output $ / M tokens$0.16—
Results tracked4311

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

Category by category

Coding Granite 4.2 30b leads

Gemma 3 27B: 22.1 (#329), Granite 4.2 30b: 40.4 (#127)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Coding13221394
Aider Polyglot4.9%—
SciCode21.2%—
LiveBench Coding39.9%—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemma 3 27B: 24.9 (#105), Granite 4.2 30b: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BGranite 4.2 30b
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard29.5%—

Reasoning Granite 4.2 30b leads

Gemma 3 27B: 16.3 (#297), Granite 4.2 30b: 26.7 (#114)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Hard Prompts13401375
Kagi LLM Benchmark40.4%—
CritPt0%—
Chess Puzzles0%—
LiveBench Reasoning43.8%—
DTBench52.5%—
LiveBench Data Analysis51.5%—
LMCA12.3%—
Epoch Capabilities Index130.04—
LiveBench50%—

Math Not comparable

Gemma 3 27B: 24.4 (#261), Granite 4.2 30b: —

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BGranite 4.2 30b
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202522.5%—
LiveBench Math55.4%—
LMArena Math1312—
MATH Level 574%—

Knowledge Granite 4.2 30b leads

Gemma 3 27B: 25.4 (#256), Granite 4.2 30b: 38.5 (#134)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Expert13031405
GPQA Diamond47.7%—
Confabulations40.3%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate7.4%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemma 3 27B: 32.0 (#94), Granite 4.2 30b: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Vision1165—
GeoBench52%—

Multilingual Too close to call

Gemma 3 27B: 47.0 (#150), Granite 4.2 30b: 47.4 (#146)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Non-English13341340
LMArena Chinese13471415
LMArena Russian13491342
LMArena French1368—
LMArena German1362—
LMArena Japanese1287—
LMArena Korean1308—
LMArena Spanish1348—

Instruction Following Too close to call

Gemma 3 27B: 70.8 (#155), Granite 4.2 30b: 71.3 (#150)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Instruction Following13211346
LiveBench Instruction Following74.9%—

Long Context Granite 4.2 30b leads

Gemma 3 27B: 27.6 (#288), Granite 4.2 30b: 41.4 (#135)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Longer Query13331359
Fiction.LiveBench33.3%—

Writing & Preference Granite 4.2 30b leads

Gemma 3 27B: 52.7 (#161), Granite 4.2 30b: 54.3 (#147)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemma 3 27BGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Text13581363
LMArena Creative Writing13461294
LMArena Multi-Turn13441340
Short-Story Creative Writing79.9%—
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1266—
LiveBench Language34.6%—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 3 27B better than Granite 4.2 30b?

Granite 4.2 30b is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.4 to 30.5 on the Noometry Index.

Is Gemma 3 27B or Granite 4.2 30b better for coding?

Granite 4.2 30b scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.4 versus 22.1 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 27B and Granite 4.2 30b share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 27B has 43 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 30b has 11.

Related comparisons

Go deeper