Model comparison
Granite 4.0 Micro vs Granite 4.2 8B
Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 29.0 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.0 Micro costs 2.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Granite 4.2 8B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.
Summary
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Granite 4.2 8B leads 38.4 to 9.9.
- Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper at $0.017 / $0.11 per million input/output tokens, against $0.06 / $0.25 for Granite 4.2 8B.
- Granite 4.2 8B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 131K.
Side by side
| Granite 4.0 Micro | Granite 4.2 8B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | IBM |
| Noometry Index | 29.0 | 40.5 |
| Released | 2025-10-02 | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 131K | 131K |
| Max output | 118K | 118K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.017 | $0.06 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.11 | $0.25 |
| Results tracked | 8 | 11 |
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Category by category
Coding Not comparable
Granite 4.0 Micro: —, Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | — | 1380 |
Reasoning Granite 4.2 8B leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 19.2 (#265), Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1329 |
Math Not comparable
Granite 4.0 Micro: 12.0 (#307), Granite 4.2 8B: —
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 2.8% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 20.9% | — |
Knowledge Granite 4.2 8B leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 9.9 (#304), Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 28.3% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 39.5% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 30.7% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1384 |
Multilingual Not comparable
Granite 4.0 Micro: —, Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1302 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1366 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1285 |
Instruction Following Granite 4.0 Micro leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 69.9 (#169), Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| IFEval | 84.9% | — |
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1301 |
Long Context Not comparable
Granite 4.0 Micro: —, Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1324 |
Writing & Preference Granite 4.2 8B leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 46.7 (#216), Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1320 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1236 |
| WildBench | 67% | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1301 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.0 Micro better than Granite 4.2 8B?
Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 29.0 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.0 Micro costs 2.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Granite 4.2 8B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Granite 4.0 Micro or Granite 4.2 8B?
Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper. It lists at $0.017 per million input tokens and $0.11 per million output tokens; Granite 4.2 8B lists at $0.06 and $0.25.
Which has the bigger context window?
Granite 4.2 8B does, with 131K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.0 Micro and Granite 4.2 8B share?
0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.0 Micro has 8 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 8B has 11.