Model comparison

Gemma 3 4B vs Granite 4.2 8B

Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 28.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 2.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Granite 4.2 8B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 10 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 3 4B

Google

28.1

Rank #326 Confirmed

Granite 4.2 8B IBM

40.5

Rank #148 Confirmed

Summary

They share 10 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 4B scores higher in 0 categories and Granite 4.2 8B in 7 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in knowledge, where Granite 4.2 8B leads 38.4 to 11.8.
Gemma 3 4B is cheaper at $0.04 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.06 / $0.25 for Granite 4.2 8B.

Side by side

Gemma 3 4B and Granite 4.2 8B specifications
	Gemma 3 4B	Granite 4.2 8B
Provider	Google	IBM
Noometry Index	28.1	40.5
Released	2025-03-12	—
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	131K	131K
Max output	4K	118K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.04	$0.06
Output $ / M tokens	$0.08	$0.25
Results tracked	22	11

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Category by category

Coding Granite 4.2 8B leads

Gemma 3 4B: 35.9 (#215), Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 4B	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Coding	1230	1380

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemma 3 4B: 20.9 (#142), Granite 4.2 8B: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 4B	Granite 4.2 8B
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard	19.6%	—

Reasoning Granite 4.2 8B leads

Gemma 3 4B: 13.2 (#335), Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 4B	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Hard Prompts	1253	1329
Kagi LLM Benchmark	25.2%	—
Chess Puzzles	0%	—
DTBench	50.9%	—
LMCA	2.8%	—
Epoch Capabilities Index	116.02	—

Math Not comparable

Gemma 3 4B: 16.8 (#292), Granite 4.2 8B: —

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 4B	Granite 4.2 8B
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	7.5%	—
LMArena Math	1239	—

Knowledge Granite 4.2 8B leads

Gemma 3 4B: 11.8 (#299), Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 4B	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Expert	1223	1384
GPQA Diamond	23.2%	—
Vectara Hallucination Rate	6.4%	—

Multilingual Granite 4.2 8B leads

Gemma 3 4B: 42.5 (#194), Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 4B	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Non-English	1273	1302
LMArena Russian	1294	1285
LMArena Chinese	—	1366
LMArena German	1281	—

Instruction Following Granite 4.2 8B leads

Gemma 3 4B: 65.2 (#225), Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 4B	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Instruction Following	1239	1301

Long Context Granite 4.2 8B leads

Gemma 3 4B: 38.7 (#194), Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 4B	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Longer Query	1273	1324

Writing & Preference Granite 4.2 8B leads

Gemma 3 4B: 42.0 (#239), Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 4B	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Text	1291	1320
LMArena Creative Writing	1271	1236
LMArena Multi-Turn	1255	1301
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	1068	—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 3 4B better than Granite 4.2 8B?

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 4B or Granite 4.2 8B?

Gemma 3 4B is cheaper. It lists at $0.04 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Granite 4.2 8B lists at $0.06 and $0.25.

Is Gemma 3 4B or Granite 4.2 8B better for coding?

Granite 4.2 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.5 versus 35.9 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 131K tokens.

How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 4B and Granite 4.2 8B share?

10 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 4B has 22 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 8B has 11.