Model comparison

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT vs Granite 4.2 8B

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 11 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT

Google

43.5

Rank #92 Confirmed

Granite 4.2 8B IBM

40.5

Rank #148 Confirmed

Summary

They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 4 26B A4B IT scores higher in 5 categories and Granite 4.2 8B in 2 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Gemma 4 26B A4B IT leads 58.6 to 49.6.
Both cost about the same: $0.0675 input and $0.23 output per million tokens.
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.

Side by side

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT and Granite 4.2 8B specifications
	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Granite 4.2 8B
Provider	Google	IBM
Noometry Index	43.5	40.5
Released	2026-04-02	—
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	262K	131K
Max output	33K	118K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.0675	$0.06
Output $ / M tokens	$0.23	$0.25
Results tracked	28	11

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Category by category

Coding Granite 4.2 8B leads

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 39.0 (#164), Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Coding	1447	1380
LMArena WebDev	1359	—
SciCode	40%	—
WeirdML	35.2%	—
ALE-Bench	927.17	—

Reasoning Granite 4.2 8B leads

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 21.8 (#213), Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Hard Prompts	1439	1329
CritPt	0%	—
Chess Puzzles	6%	—
DTBench	74.9%	—
LMCA	29.7%	—
Epoch Capabilities Index	141.85	—

Math Not comparable

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 47.6 (#67), Granite 4.2 8B: —

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Granite 4.2 8B
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	82.2%	—
LMArena Math	1470	—

Knowledge Gemma 4 26B A4B IT leads

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 45.7 (#85), Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Expert	1447	1384
GPQA Diamond	73.2%	—
Vectara Hallucination Rate	5.2%	—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 40.6 (#46), Granite 4.2 8B: —

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Vision	1260	—

Multilingual Gemma 4 26B A4B IT leads

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 53.1 (#71), Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Non-English	1421	1302
LMArena Chinese	1495	1366
LMArena Russian	1434	1285
LMArena French	1460	—
LMArena Spanish	1417	—

Instruction Following Gemma 4 26B A4B IT leads

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 74.8 (#82), Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Instruction Following	1420	1301

Long Context Gemma 4 26B A4B IT leads

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 43.6 (#91), Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Longer Query	1428	1324

Writing & Preference Gemma 4 26B A4B IT leads

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 58.6 (#115), Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Granite 4.2 8B
LMArena Text	1434	1320
LMArena Creative Writing	1402	1236
LMArena Multi-Turn	1441	1301
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	1305	—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 4 26B A4B IT better than Granite 4.2 8B?

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 4 26B A4B IT or Granite 4.2 8B?

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is cheaper. It lists at $0.0675 per million input tokens and $0.23 per million output tokens; Granite 4.2 8B lists at $0.06 and $0.25.

Is Gemma 4 26B A4B IT or Granite 4.2 8B better for coding?

Granite 4.2 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.5 versus 39.0 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT does, with 262K tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do Gemma 4 26B A4B IT and Granite 4.2 8B share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 4 26B A4B IT has 28 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 8B has 11.