Model comparison

gpt-oss-120b vs Granite 4.1 8b

Granite 4.1 8b is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.4 to 36.3 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.

gpt-oss-120b OpenAI

36.3

Rank #217 Confirmed

Granite 4.1 8b IBM

37.4

Rank #205 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. gpt-oss-120b scores higher in 5 categories and Granite 4.1 8b in 3 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where gpt-oss-120b leads 52.5 to 36.4.

Side by side

gpt-oss-120b and Granite 4.1 8b specifications
gpt-oss-120bGranite 4.1 8b
ProviderOpenAIIBM
Noometry Index36.337.4
Released2025-08-05—
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window131K—
Max output41K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.037—
Output $ / M tokens$0.17—
Results tracked4813

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Category by category

Coding gpt-oss-120b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 33.5 (#256), Granite 4.1 8b: 30.1 (#297)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 4.1 8b
LMArena Coding13801312
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)26%—
Aider Polyglot41.8%—
LMArena WebDev—1192
SciCode36%—
WeirdML48.2%—
ALE-Bench575.62—
AlgoTune1.41—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

gpt-oss-120b: 12.2 (#153), Granite 4.1 8b: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 4.1 8b
Terminal-Bench18.7%—
APEX-Agents4.4%—
METR Time Horizons56.6%—
Vending-Bench 2-21.53—

Reasoning Granite 4.1 8b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 20.0 (#245), Granite 4.1 8b: 25.7 (#143)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 4.1 8b
LMArena Hard Prompts13641293
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 4.1 8b: 36.4 (#166)

Math benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 4.1 8b
LMArena Math13891312
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202588.9%—
Omni-MATH68.8%—

Knowledge gpt-oss-120b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 42.4 (#96), Granite 4.1 8b: 36.1 (#174)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 4.1 8b
LMArena Expert13561309
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 4.1 8b: 41.7 (#204)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 4.1 8b
LMArena Non-English13511261
LMArena Chinese13851337
LMArena Russian13431240
LMArena French1369—
LMArena German1353—
LMArena Japanese1331—
LMArena Korean1282—
LMArena Spanish1389—

Instruction Following gpt-oss-120b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 69.3 (#173), Granite 4.1 8b: 66.9 (#203)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 4.1 8b
LMArena Instruction Following13181269
IFEval83.6%—

Long Context Granite 4.1 8b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 31.4 (#278), Granite 4.1 8b: 38.7 (#193)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 4.1 8b
LMArena Longer Query13191275
Fiction.LiveBench44.4%—

Writing & Preference Granite 4.1 8b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 46.5 (#217), Granite 4.1 8b: 48.1 (#204)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 4.1 8b
LMArena Text13651290
LMArena Creative Writing12751251
LMArena Multi-Turn13401268
Short-Story Creative Writing77.1%—
EQ-Bench Creative Writing961—
WildBench84.5%—

Frequently asked questions

Is gpt-oss-120b better than Granite 4.1 8b?

Granite 4.1 8b is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.4 to 36.3 on the Noometry Index.

Is gpt-oss-120b or Granite 4.1 8b better for coding?

gpt-oss-120b scores higher on coding benchmarks: 33.5 versus 30.1 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do gpt-oss-120b and Granite 4.1 8b share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. gpt-oss-120b has 48 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.1 8b has 13.

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