Model comparison
Granite 4.2 3b vs Grok-2 (Dec 2024)
Granite 4.2 3b is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.0 to 33.4 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.
Summary
- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 3b scores higher in 5 categories and Grok-2 (Dec 2024) in 2 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Granite 4.2 3b leads 25.0 to 16.4.
- Granite 4.2 3b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Granite 4.2 3b | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | xAI |
| Noometry Index | 39.0 | 33.4 |
| Released | — | 2024-08-13 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | — | — |
| Max output | — | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | — |
| Results tracked | 11 | 34 |
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Category by category
Coding Granite 4.2 3b leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 39.4 (#146), Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 32.9 (#254)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1363 | 1288 |
| WeirdML | — | 22.2% |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 46.4% |
Reasoning Granite 4.2 3b leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 25.0 (#136), Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 16.4 (#294)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1308 | 1272 |
| SimpleBench | — | 22.7% |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 54.8% |
| DTBench | — | 65.2% |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 54.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 130.48 |
| LiveBench | — | 54.3% |
Math Not comparable
Granite 4.2 3b: —, Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 19.6 (#278)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 11.5% |
| LiveBench Math | — | 54.9% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1283 |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 63.5% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 0.7% |
Knowledge Granite 4.2 3b leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 35.6 (#169), Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 29.8 (#225)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1313 | 1254 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 53.8% |
| Confabulations | — | 20.1% |
Multilingual Too close to call
Granite 4.2 3b: 42.4 (#193), Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 43.3 (#183)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1268 | 1282 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1268 | 1289 |
| LMArena Russian | 1249 | 1286 |
| LMArena French | — | 1317 |
| LMArena German | — | 1287 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1244 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1237 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1281 |
Instruction Following Too close to call
Granite 4.2 3b: 67.2 (#195), Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 67.1 (#197)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1271 | 1270 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 69.6% |
Long Context Too close to call
Granite 4.2 3b: 39.3 (#179), Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 38.7 (#186)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1293 | 1276 |
Writing & Preference Too close to call
Granite 4.2 3b: 47.9 (#202), Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 48.8 (#192)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1295 | 1305 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1215 | 1284 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1293 | 1290 |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | — | 63.6% |
| LiveBench Language | — | 45.6% |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.2 3b better than Grok-2 (Dec 2024)?
Granite 4.2 3b is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.0 to 33.4 on the Noometry Index.
Is Granite 4.2 3b or Grok-2 (Dec 2024) better for coding?
Granite 4.2 3b scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.4 versus 32.9 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 3b and Grok-2 (Dec 2024) share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 3b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Grok-2 (Dec 2024) has 34.