Model comparison

Granite 4.2 3b vs Qwen3-4B

Granite 4.2 3b is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.0 to 31.5 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 0 shared benchmarks.

Granite 4.2 3b IBM

39.0

Rank #163 Confirmed

Qwen3-4B

Alibaba (Qwen)

31.5

Rank #261 Confirmed

Summary

The widest gap is in reasoning, where Granite 4.2 3b leads 25.0 to 18.5.

Side by side

Granite 4.2 3b and Qwen3-4B specifications
	Granite 4.2 3b	Qwen3-4B
Provider	IBM	Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index	39.0	31.5
Released	—	2025-04-29
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	—	—
Max output	—	—
Input $ / M tokens	—	—
Output $ / M tokens	—	—
Results tracked	11	6

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

Category by category

Coding Not comparable

Granite 4.2 3b: 39.4 (#146), Qwen3-4B: —

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 3b	Qwen3-4B
LMArena Coding	1363	—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Granite 4.2 3b: —, Qwen3-4B: 27.3 (#94)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 3b	Qwen3-4B
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard	—	35.7%

Reasoning Granite 4.2 3b leads

Granite 4.2 3b: 25.0 (#136), Qwen3-4B: 18.5 (#264)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 3b	Qwen3-4B
Chess Puzzles	—	4%
LMArena Hard Prompts	1308	—

Math Not comparable

Granite 4.2 3b: —, Qwen3-4B: 28.5 (#228)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 3b	Qwen3-4B
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions	—	38.5%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	—	52.2%

Knowledge Granite 4.2 3b leads

Granite 4.2 3b: 35.6 (#169), Qwen3-4B: 33.0 (#198)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 3b	Qwen3-4B
GPQA Diamond	—	52.3%
Vectara Hallucination Rate	—	5.7%
LMArena Expert	1313	—

Multilingual Not comparable

Granite 4.2 3b: 42.4 (#193), Qwen3-4B: —

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 3b	Qwen3-4B
LMArena Non-English	1268	—
LMArena Chinese	1268	—
LMArena Russian	1249	—

Instruction Following Not comparable

Granite 4.2 3b: 67.2 (#195), Qwen3-4B: —

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 3b	Qwen3-4B
LMArena Instruction Following	1271	—

Long Context Not comparable

Granite 4.2 3b: 39.3 (#179), Qwen3-4B: —

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 3b	Qwen3-4B
LMArena Longer Query	1293	—

Writing & Preference Not comparable

Granite 4.2 3b: 47.9 (#202), Qwen3-4B: —

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 3b	Qwen3-4B
LMArena Text	1295	—
LMArena Creative Writing	1215	—
LMArena Multi-Turn	1293	—

Frequently asked questions

Is Granite 4.2 3b better than Qwen3-4B?