Model comparison

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct vs Grok 4.6

Grok 4.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct IBM

31.8

Rank #256 Confirmed

Grok 4.6 xAI

56.8

Rank #19 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 3.1 8b Instruct scores higher in 0 categories and Grok 4.6 in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Grok 4.6 leads 61.3 to 21.2.
  • Granite 3.1 8b Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct and Grok 4.6 specifications
Granite 3.1 8b InstructGrok 4.6
ProviderIBMxAI
Noometry Index31.856.8
Released—2026-08-12
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window—500K
Max output—500K
Input $ / M tokens—$2
Output $ / M tokens—$6
Results tracked1349

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Category by category

Coding Grok 4.6 leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 33.9 (#232), Grok 4.6: 58.0 (#14)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructGrok 4.6
LMArena Coding11861464
DeepSWE—67.5%
FrontierCode—48%
CursorBench—41.4%
LMArena WebDev—1620
FrontierSWE—25.3%
SciCode—56.5%
WeirdML—67.3%
ALE-Bench—1,508

Agentic & Tool Use Grok 4.6 leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 23.9 (#113), Grok 4.6: 39.4 (#25)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructGrok 4.6
APEX-Agents—65.3%
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard27.1%—
GDP.pdf—17.2%
Vending-Bench 2—9,047

Reasoning Grok 4.6 leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 21.2 (#204), Grok 4.6: 61.3 (#18)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructGrok 4.6
LMArena Hard Prompts11461445
ARC-AGI-2—67.1%
SimpleBench—75.9%
NYT Connections (extended)—80%
ARC-AGI-1—87.5%
CritPt—19.7%
Chess Puzzles—40%
EBR-Bench—30.5%
Mystery Game Puzzles—34%
DTBench—97.3%
LMCA—48.5%
Epoch Capabilities Index—156.48

Math Grok 4.6 leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 30.4 (#210), Grok 4.6: 66.8 (#19)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructGrok 4.6
LMArena Math11521416
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)—66%
FrontierMath Tier 4—31.7%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025—99.2%
ProofBench—51%

Knowledge Grok 4.6 leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 30.6 (#218), Grok 4.6: 63.3 (#18)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructGrok 4.6
LMArena Expert11421463
GPQA Diamond—94%
SimpleQA Verified—49.3%

Multimodal Not comparable

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: —, Grok 4.6: 43.9 (#18)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructGrok 4.6
LMArena Vision—1265
Blueprint-Bench 2—33.2%
Furniture Assembly—40%
LMArena Document—1452

Multilingual Grok 4.6 leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 31.1 (#255), Grok 4.6: 53.3 (#67)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructGrok 4.6
LMArena Non-English10991422
LMArena Chinese11451479
LMArena Russian10921427
LMArena French—1458
LMArena German—1425
LMArena Japanese—1383
LMArena Korean—1395
LMArena Spanish—1408

Instruction Following Grok 4.6 leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 58.9 (#254), Grok 4.6: 75.6 (#59)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructGrok 4.6
LMArena Instruction Following11311431

Long Context Grok 4.6 leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 35.2 (#236), Grok 4.6: 44.4 (#62)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructGrok 4.6
LMArena Longer Query11621453

Writing & Preference Grok 4.6 leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 35.7 (#261), Grok 4.6: 62.5 (#77)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructGrok 4.6
LMArena Text11501427
LMArena Creative Writing11291430
LMArena Multi-Turn11081422

Frequently asked questions

Is Granite 3.1 8b Instruct better than Grok 4.6?

Grok 4.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index.

Is Granite 3.1 8b Instruct or Grok 4.6 better for coding?

Grok 4.6 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 58.0 versus 33.9 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Granite 3.1 8b Instruct and Grok 4.6 share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 3.1 8b Instruct has 13 scored results on Noometry and Grok 4.6 has 49.

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