Model comparison
Granite 4.2 8B vs Inkling
Inkling is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.1 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.2 8B costs 24× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Inkling's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.
Summary
- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 8B scores higher in 1 category and Inkling in 6 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Inkling leads 55.1 to 38.4.
- Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $1.87 / $4.68 for Inkling.
- Granite 4.2 8B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 66K.
Side by side
| Granite 4.2 8B | Inkling | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Thinking Machines Lab |
| Noometry Index | 40.5 | 44.1 |
| Released | — | 2026-07-15 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 131K | 66K |
| Max output | 118K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.06 | $1.87 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.25 | $4.68 |
| Results tracked | 11 | 41 |
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Category by category
Coding Granite 4.2 8B leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137), Inkling: 34.5 (#234)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Inkling |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1380 | 1464 |
| FrontierCode | — | 14% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1413 |
| FrontierSWE | — | 4.1% |
| SciCode | — | 47% |
| WeirdML | — | 32.3% |
| ALE-Bench | — | 946 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Granite 4.2 8B: —, Inkling: 29.6 (#85)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Inkling |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 33.8% |
| τ²-bench Banking | — | 25% |
Reasoning Inkling leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131), Inkling: 40.4 (#56)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Inkling |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1329 | 1451 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | — | 36.5% |
| SimpleBench | — | 50% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | — | 79.5% |
| CritPt | — | 5.4% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 21% |
| DTBench | — | 87.5% |
| LMCA | — | 37.6% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 148.54 |
Math Not comparable
Granite 4.2 8B: —, Inkling: 31.3 (#225)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Inkling |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 33.3% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | — | 4.9% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 88.9% |
| ProofBench | — | 0% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1479 |
Knowledge Inkling leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145), Inkling: 55.1 (#49)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Inkling |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1384 | 1465 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 88.3% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 40.3% |
Multilingual Inkling leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178), Inkling: 54.0 (#52)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Inkling |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1302 | 1434 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1366 | 1490 |
| LMArena Russian | 1285 | 1429 |
| LMArena French | — | 1458 |
| LMArena German | — | 1446 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1429 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1404 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1448 |
Instruction Following Inkling leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184), Inkling: 75.1 (#71)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Inkling |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1301 | 1426 |
Long Context Inkling leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159), Inkling: 43.8 (#86)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Inkling |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1324 | 1434 |
Writing & Preference Inkling leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189), Inkling: 65.2 (#51)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Inkling |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1320 | 1441 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1236 | 1387 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1301 | 1436 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1611 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | — | 1226 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.2 8B better than Inkling?
Inkling is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.1 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.2 8B costs 24× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Inkling's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 8B or Inkling?
Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; Inkling lists at $1.87 and $4.68.
Is Granite 4.2 8B or Inkling better for coding?
Granite 4.2 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.5 versus 34.5 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Granite 4.2 8B does, with 131K tokens against 66K.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 8B and Inkling share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 8B has 11 scored results on Noometry and Inkling has 41.