Model comparison

Granite 4.1 8b vs Mistral Small 3

Granite 4.1 8b is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.8 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.

Granite 4.1 8b IBM

36.8

Rank #202 Confirmed

Mistral Small 3 Mistral AI

30.9

Rank #268 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.1 8b scores higher in 7 categories and Mistral Small 3 in 1 category; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where Granite 4.1 8b leads 33.8 to 15.3.

Side by side

Granite 4.1 8b and Mistral Small 3 specifications
Granite 4.1 8bMistral Small 3
ProviderIBMMistral AI
Noometry Index36.830.9
Released—2025-01-30
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window—33K
Max output—16K
Input $ / M tokens—$0.05
Output $ / M tokens—$0.08
Results tracked1324

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

Category by category

Coding Mistral Small 3 leads

Granite 4.1 8b: 29.9 (#291), Mistral Small 3: 36.0 (#203)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.1 8bMistral Small 3
LMArena Coding13131246
LMArena WebDev1190—
BigCodeBench Instruct—45.3%
BigCodeBench Complete—50.4%

Reasoning Granite 4.1 8b leads

Granite 4.1 8b: 24.6 (#142), Mistral Small 3: 18.2 (#269)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.1 8bMistral Small 3
LMArena Hard Prompts12941233
Chess Puzzles—0%
Epoch Capabilities Index—127.06

Math Granite 4.1 8b leads

Granite 4.1 8b: 33.8 (#167), Mistral Small 3: 15.3 (#290)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.1 8bMistral Small 3
LMArena Math13111240
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025—6.7%

Knowledge Granite 4.1 8b leads

Granite 4.1 8b: 35.5 (#171), Mistral Small 3: 25.0 (#258)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.1 8bMistral Small 3
LMArena Expert13101202
GPQA Diamond—47.3%
Confabulations—25.2%

Multilingual Granite 4.1 8b leads

Granite 4.1 8b: 41.8 (#199), Mistral Small 3: 37.5 (#231)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.1 8bMistral Small 3
LMArena Non-English12611198
LMArena Chinese13351204
LMArena Russian12381216
LMArena French—1202
LMArena German—1211
LMArena Japanese—1111
LMArena Korean—1188

Instruction Following Granite 4.1 8b leads

Granite 4.1 8b: 67.0 (#198), Mistral Small 3: 63.9 (#224)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.1 8bMistral Small 3
LMArena Instruction Following12681214

Long Context Too close to call

Granite 4.1 8b: 38.7 (#188), Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#206)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.1 8bMistral Small 3
LMArena Longer Query12751246

Writing & Preference Granite 4.1 8b leads

Granite 4.1 8b: 48.3 (#199), Mistral Small 3: 32.4 (#275)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.1 8bMistral Small 3
LMArena Text12911234
LMArena Creative Writing12491195
LMArena Multi-Turn12691217
EQ-Bench Creative Writing—707

Frequently asked questions

Is Granite 4.1 8b better than Mistral Small 3?

Granite 4.1 8b is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.8 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index.

Is Granite 4.1 8b or Mistral Small 3 better for coding?

Mistral Small 3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 36.0 versus 29.9 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Granite 4.1 8b and Mistral Small 3 share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.1 8b has 13 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3 has 24.

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