Model comparison
Granite 4.2 3b vs Muse Spark 1.3
Muse Spark 1.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.8 to 39.4 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.
MetaSummary
- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 3b scores higher in 0 categories and Muse Spark 1.3 in 7 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Muse Spark 1.3 leads 54.0 to 26.0.
- Granite 4.2 3b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Granite 4.2 3b | Muse Spark 1.3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Meta |
| Noometry Index | 39.4 | 54.8 |
| Released | — | 2026-09-02 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | — | 1.05M |
| Max output | — | 131K |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | $1.25 |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | $4.25 |
| Results tracked | 11 | 37 |
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Category by category
Coding Muse Spark 1.3 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 40.0 (#151), Muse Spark 1.3: 56.6 (#21)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Muse Spark 1.3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1361 | 1514 |
| CursorBench | — | 41.6% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1657 |
| SciCode | — | 59.7% |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Granite 4.2 3b: —, Muse Spark 1.3: 38.6 (#30)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Muse Spark 1.3 |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 57.8% |
| GDP.pdf | — | 27.6% |
Reasoning Muse Spark 1.3 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 26.0 (#138), Muse Spark 1.3: 54.0 (#27)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Muse Spark 1.3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1306 | 1503 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 85.1% |
| CritPt | — | 26% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 38% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 25% |
| DTBench | — | 96.5% |
| LMCA | — | 53.9% |
| Bench to the Future 3 | — | 0.14 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 156.75 |
Math Not comparable
Granite 4.2 3b: —, Muse Spark 1.3: 73.1 (#21)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Muse Spark 1.3 |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 74.4% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | — | 46.3% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 99.2% |
| ProofBench | — | 58% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1494 |
Knowledge Muse Spark 1.3 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 36.3 (#171), Muse Spark 1.3: 42.6 (#95)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Muse Spark 1.3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1315 | 1516 |
Multimodal Not comparable
Granite 4.2 3b: —, Muse Spark 1.3: 43.7 (#22)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Muse Spark 1.3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1309 |
| LMArena Document | — | 1471 |
Multilingual Muse Spark 1.3 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 42.1 (#198), Muse Spark 1.3: 57.4 (#8)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Muse Spark 1.3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1268 | 1481 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1269 | 1529 |
| LMArena Russian | 1249 | 1490 |
| LMArena French | — | 1524 |
| LMArena German | — | 1515 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1474 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1501 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1490 |
Instruction Following Muse Spark 1.3 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 67.1 (#200), Muse Spark 1.3: 77.5 (#22)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Muse Spark 1.3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1273 | 1477 |
Long Context Muse Spark 1.3 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 39.2 (#185), Muse Spark 1.3: 45.6 (#32)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Muse Spark 1.3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1291 | 1488 |
Writing & Preference Muse Spark 1.3 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 47.2 (#212), Muse Spark 1.3: 73.6 (#9)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Muse Spark 1.3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1293 | 1490 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1205 | 1455 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1290 | 1482 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1906 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.2 3b better than Muse Spark 1.3?
Muse Spark 1.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.8 to 39.4 on the Noometry Index.
Is Granite 4.2 3b or Muse Spark 1.3 better for coding?
Muse Spark 1.3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 56.6 versus 40.0 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 3b and Muse Spark 1.3 share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 3b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Muse Spark 1.3 has 37.