Model comparison

GPT-5.5 vs Granite 4.2 3b

GPT-5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 63.4 to 39.4 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.

GPT-5.5 OpenAI

63.4

Rank #9 Confirmed

Granite 4.2 3b IBM

39.4

Rank #169 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-5.5 scores higher in 7 categories and Granite 4.2 3b in 0 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where GPT-5.5 leads 72.8 to 26.0.
  • Granite 4.2 3b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GPT-5.5 and Granite 4.2 3b specifications
GPT-5.5Granite 4.2 3b
ProviderOpenAIIBM
Noometry Index63.439.4
Released2026-04-23—
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M—
Max output128K—
Input $ / M tokens$5—
Output $ / M tokens$30—
Results tracked7111

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

Category by category

Coding GPT-5.5 leads

GPT-5.5: 58.2 (#17), Granite 4.2 3b: 40.0 (#151)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.5Granite 4.2 3b
LMArena Coding14941361
SWE-bench Verified80.6%—
DeepSWE67%—
FrontierCode43%—
LMArena WebDev1513—
SciCode56.1%—
GSO40.2%—
WeirdML84.9%—
MirrorCode10%—
ALE-Bench1,943—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

GPT-5.5: 50.7 (#6), Granite 4.2 3b: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.5Granite 4.2 3b
Terminal-Bench84.7%—
APEX-Agents55.1%—
OSWorld 2.013%—
Remote Labor Index6.3%—
τ²-bench Banking44.6%—
DeepResearch Bench54%—
PostTrainBench27.2%—
ExploitBench47.4%—
GBAEval53.2%—
GDP.pdf26%—
LMArena Search1242—
Vending-Bench 27,524—

Reasoning GPT-5.5 leads

GPT-5.5: 72.8 (#11), Granite 4.2 3b: 26.0 (#138)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.5Granite 4.2 3b
LMArena Hard Prompts14891306
ARC-AGI-285%—
SimpleBench69%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark88.8%—
NYT Connections (extended)96.2%—
ARC-AGI-195%—
CritPt27.1%—
Chess Puzzles54%—
EBR-Bench34.3%—
Mystery Game Puzzles56%—
DTBench96%—
LMCA54.3%—
Surface Evolver Bench88.1%—
Bench to the Future 30.14—
Epoch Capabilities Index159.1—
ForecastBench60.6—

Math Not comparable

GPT-5.5: 81.7 (#11), Granite 4.2 3b: —

Knowledge GPT-5.5 leads

GPT-5.5: 64.4 (#17), Granite 4.2 3b: 36.3 (#171)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.5Granite 4.2 3b
LMArena Expert15081315
GPQA Diamond94%—
SimpleQA Verified63%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate9.3%—

Multimodal Not comparable

GPT-5.5: 46.9 (#12), Granite 4.2 3b: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.5Granite 4.2 3b
LMArena Vision1297—
Blueprint-Bench 236.2%—
Furniture Assembly44.2%—
LMArena Document1486—

Multilingual GPT-5.5 leads

GPT-5.5: 56.4 (#20), Granite 4.2 3b: 42.1 (#198)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.5Granite 4.2 3b
LMArena Non-English14671268
LMArena Chinese15331269
LMArena Russian14731249
LMArena French1486—
LMArena German1480—
LMArena Japanese1498—
LMArena Korean1460—
LMArena Spanish1468—

Instruction Following GPT-5.5 leads

GPT-5.5: 77.5 (#18), Granite 4.2 3b: 67.1 (#200)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.5Granite 4.2 3b
LMArena Instruction Following14791273

Long Context GPT-5.5 leads

GPT-5.5: 48.3 (#12), Granite 4.2 3b: 39.2 (#185)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.5Granite 4.2 3b
LMArena Longer Query14841291
CL-bench Life22.2%—

Writing & Preference GPT-5.5 leads

GPT-5.5: 72.7 (#13), Granite 4.2 3b: 47.2 (#212)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.5Granite 4.2 3b
LMArena Text14721293
LMArena Creative Writing14551205
LMArena Multi-Turn14761290
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1844—
EQ-Bench 41315—

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-5.5 better than Granite 4.2 3b?

GPT-5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 63.4 to 39.4 on the Noometry Index.

Is GPT-5.5 or Granite 4.2 3b better for coding?

GPT-5.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 58.2 versus 40.0 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do GPT-5.5 and Granite 4.2 3b share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-5.5 has 71 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 3b has 11.

Related comparisons

Go deeper