Model comparison
Granite 4.2 3b vs Mistral Large 4
Mistral Large 4 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.1 to 39.4 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 1 category and Mistral Large 4 in 6 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Mistral Large 4 leads 60.4 to 47.2.
- Granite 4.2 3b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral Large 4 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 39.4 | 43.1 |
| Released | — | 2026-10-06 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | — | 1.05M |
| Max output | — | 262K |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | $0.68 |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | $2.09 |
| Results tracked | 11 | 15 |
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Category by category
Coding Mistral Large 4 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 40.0 (#151), Mistral Large 4: 48.6 (#57)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1361 | 1475 |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1541 |
Reasoning Granite 4.2 3b leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 26.0 (#138), Mistral Large 4: 22.5 (#192)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1306 | 1444 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 27.4% |
Math Not comparable
Granite 4.2 3b: —, Mistral Large 4: 40.4 (#91)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | — | 1488 |
Knowledge Too close to call
Granite 4.2 3b: 36.3 (#171), Mistral Large 4: 36.6 (#166)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1315 | 1447 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 20% |
Multilingual Mistral Large 4 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 42.1 (#198), Mistral Large 4: 52.6 (#82)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1268 | 1415 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1269 | 1491 |
| LMArena Russian | 1249 | 1414 |
Instruction Following Mistral Large 4 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 67.1 (#200), Mistral Large 4: 75.0 (#76)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1273 | 1424 |
Long Context Mistral Large 4 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 39.2 (#185), Mistral Large 4: 43.6 (#89)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1291 | 1429 |
Writing & Preference Mistral Large 4 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 47.2 (#212), Mistral Large 4: 60.4 (#97)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1293 | 1427 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1205 | 1361 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1290 | 1424 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.2 3b better than Mistral Large 4?
Mistral Large 4 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.1 to 39.4 on the Noometry Index.
Is Granite 4.2 3b or Mistral Large 4 better for coding?
Mistral Large 4 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.6 versus 40.0 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 3b and Mistral Large 4 share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 3b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Large 4 has 15.