Model comparison

gpt-oss-120b vs Granite 3.1 2b Instruct

gpt-oss-120b is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.3 to 33.2 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.

gpt-oss-120b OpenAI

36.3

Rank #217 Confirmed

Granite 3.1 2b Instruct IBM

33.2

Rank #247 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. gpt-oss-120b scores higher in 6 categories and Granite 3.1 2b Instruct in 2 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where gpt-oss-120b leads 52.5 to 33.1.

Side by side

gpt-oss-120b and Granite 3.1 2b Instruct specifications
gpt-oss-120bGranite 3.1 2b Instruct
ProviderOpenAIIBM
Noometry Index36.333.2
Released2025-08-05—
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window131K—
Max output41K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.037—
Output $ / M tokens$0.17—
Results tracked4812

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Category by category

Coding Too close to call

gpt-oss-120b: 33.5 (#256), Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 33.4 (#257)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 3.1 2b Instruct
LMArena Coding13801149
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)26%—
Aider Polyglot41.8%—
SciCode36%—
WeirdML48.2%—
ALE-Bench575.62—
AlgoTune1.41—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

gpt-oss-120b: 12.2 (#153), Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 3.1 2b Instruct
Terminal-Bench18.7%—
APEX-Agents4.4%—
METR Time Horizons56.6%—
Vending-Bench 2-21.53—

Reasoning Granite 3.1 2b Instruct leads

gpt-oss-120b: 20.0 (#245), Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 22.0 (#209)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 3.1 2b Instruct
LMArena Hard Prompts13641138
SimpleBench22.1%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark58.6%—
CritPt1.1%—
Chess Puzzles20%—
Mystery Game Puzzles2%—
DTBench76.3%—
LMCA22.1%—
Surface Evolver Bench25%—
Epoch Capabilities Index139.93—

Math gpt-oss-120b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 52.5 (#50), Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 33.1 (#206)

Math benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 3.1 2b Instruct
LMArena Math13891159
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202588.9%—
Omni-MATH68.8%—

Knowledge gpt-oss-120b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 42.4 (#96), Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 30.8 (#224)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 3.1 2b Instruct
LMArena Expert13561131
GPQA Diamond75.8%—
MMLU-Pro79.5%—
Confabulations15.7%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate14.2%—
GPQA (HELM)68.4%—

Multilingual gpt-oss-120b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 48.0 (#147), Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 29.1 (#269)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 3.1 2b Instruct
LMArena Non-English13511068
LMArena Chinese13851139
LMArena Russian13431063
LMArena French1369—
LMArena German1353—
LMArena Japanese1331—
LMArena Korean1282—
LMArena Spanish1389—

Instruction Following gpt-oss-120b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 69.3 (#173), Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 57.7 (#264)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 3.1 2b Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following13181116
IFEval83.6%—

Long Context Granite 3.1 2b Instruct leads

gpt-oss-120b: 31.4 (#278), Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 35.0 (#244)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 3.1 2b Instruct
LMArena Longer Query13191155
Fiction.LiveBench44.4%—

Writing & Preference gpt-oss-120b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 46.5 (#217), Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 34.1 (#274)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 3.1 2b Instruct
LMArena Text13651127
LMArena Creative Writing12751116
LMArena Multi-Turn13401099
Short-Story Creative Writing77.1%—
EQ-Bench Creative Writing961—
WildBench84.5%—

Frequently asked questions

Is gpt-oss-120b better than Granite 3.1 2b Instruct?

gpt-oss-120b is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.3 to 33.2 on the Noometry Index.

Is gpt-oss-120b or Granite 3.1 2b Instruct better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (33.5 vs 33.4); test both on your own repository before choosing.

How many benchmarks do gpt-oss-120b and Granite 3.1 2b Instruct share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. gpt-oss-120b has 48 scored results on Noometry and Granite 3.1 2b Instruct has 12.

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