Model comparison
Granite 4.2 3b vs Mistral
Granite 4.2 3b is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.4 to 29.9 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.
Mistral AISummary
- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 3b scores higher in 7 categories and Mistral in 0 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Granite 4.2 3b leads 36.3 to 16.6.
- Granite 4.2 3b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 39.4 | 29.9 |
| Released | — | — |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | — | — |
| Max output | — | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | — |
| Results tracked | 11 | 22 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Granite 4.2 3b leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 40.0 (#151), Mistral: 33.8 (#250)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1361 | 1162 |
Reasoning Granite 4.2 3b leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 26.0 (#138), Mistral: 22.2 (#200)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1306 | 1149 |
Math Not comparable
Granite 4.2 3b: —, Mistral: 22.3 (#278)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| Omni-MATH | — | 7.2% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1180 |
Knowledge Granite 4.2 3b leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 36.3 (#171), Mistral: 16.6 (#288)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1315 | 1125 |
| MMLU-Pro | — | 27.7% |
| GPQA (HELM) | — | 30.3% |
Multilingual Granite 4.2 3b leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 42.1 (#198), Mistral: 32.8 (#254)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1268 | 1129 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1269 | 1109 |
| LMArena Russian | 1249 | 1168 |
| LMArena French | — | 1180 |
| LMArena German | — | 1155 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1013 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1032 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1143 |
Instruction Following Granite 4.2 3b leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 67.1 (#200), Mistral: 52.6 (#288)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1273 | 1152 |
| IFEval | — | 56.8% |
Long Context Granite 4.2 3b leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 39.2 (#185), Mistral: 35.0 (#245)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1291 | 1153 |
Writing & Preference Granite 4.2 3b leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 47.2 (#212), Mistral: 37.0 (#260)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1293 | 1165 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1205 | 1158 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1290 | 1147 |
| WildBench | — | 66% |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.2 3b better than Mistral?
Granite 4.2 3b is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.4 to 29.9 on the Noometry Index.
Is Granite 4.2 3b or Mistral better for coding?
Granite 4.2 3b scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.0 versus 33.8 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 3b and Mistral share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 3b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Mistral has 22.