Model comparison
Granite 4.2 8B vs Granite 4.0 H Small
Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 36.5 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.
Summary
- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 8B scores higher in 6 categories and Granite 4.0 H Small in 1 category; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Granite 4.2 8B leads 38.4 to 32.0.
Side by side
| Granite 4.2 8B | Granite 4.0 H Small | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | IBM |
| Noometry Index | 40.5 | 36.5 |
| Released | — | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 131K | — |
| Max output | 118K | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.06 | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.25 | — |
| Results tracked | 11 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Granite 4.2 8B leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137), Granite 4.0 H Small: 36.4 (#209)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Granite 4.0 H Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1380 | 1249 |
Reasoning Granite 4.2 8B leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131), Granite 4.0 H Small: 24.4 (#163)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Granite 4.0 H Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1329 | 1240 |
Math Not comparable
Granite 4.2 8B: —, Granite 4.0 H Small: 31.4 (#223)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Granite 4.0 H Small |
|---|---|---|
| Omni-MATH | — | 29.6% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1247 |
Knowledge Granite 4.2 8B leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145), Granite 4.0 H Small: 32.0 (#215)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Granite 4.0 H Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1384 | 1251 |
| MMLU-Pro | — | 56.9% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 5.2% |
| GPQA (HELM) | — | 38.3% |
Multilingual Granite 4.2 8B leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178), Granite 4.0 H Small: 38.6 (#228)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Granite 4.0 H Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1302 | 1216 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1366 | 1249 |
| LMArena Russian | 1285 | 1201 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1258 |
Instruction Following Too close to call
Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184), Granite 4.0 H Small: 68.7 (#183)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Granite 4.0 H Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1301 | 1222 |
| IFEval | — | 89% |
Long Context Granite 4.2 8B leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159), Granite 4.0 H Small: 37.7 (#213)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Granite 4.0 H Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1324 | 1242 |
Writing & Preference Granite 4.2 8B leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189), Granite 4.0 H Small: 43.8 (#227)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Granite 4.0 H Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1320 | 1241 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1236 | 1211 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1301 | 1242 |
| WildBench | — | 73.9% |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.2 8B better than Granite 4.0 H Small?
Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 36.5 on the Noometry Index.
Is Granite 4.2 8B or Granite 4.0 H Small better for coding?
Granite 4.2 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.5 versus 36.4 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 8B and Granite 4.0 H Small share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 8B has 11 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.0 H Small has 19.