Model comparison

Granite 4.2 8B vs Llama 3.2 1B

Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 19.9 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.2 1B costs 1.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Granite 4.2 8B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 11 shared benchmarks.

Granite 4.2 8B IBM

40.0

Rank #143 Confirmed

Llama 3.2 1B

Summary

They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 8B scores higher in 7 categories and Llama 3.2 1B in 0 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in knowledge, where Granite 4.2 8B leads 37.7 to 7.2.
Llama 3.2 1B is cheaper at $0.027 / $0.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.06 / $0.25 for Granite 4.2 8B.
Granite 4.2 8B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 60K.

Side by side

Granite 4.2 8B and Llama 3.2 1B specifications
	Granite 4.2 8B	Llama 3.2 1B
Provider	IBM	Meta
Noometry Index	40.0	19.9
Released	—	2024-09-24
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	131K	60K
Max output	118K	54K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.06	$0.027
Output $ / M tokens	$0.25	$0.20
Results tracked	11	22

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Category by category

Coding Granite 4.2 8B leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 39.9 (#138), Llama 3.2 1B: 20.6 (#333)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Llama 3.2 1B
LMArena Coding	1379	1071
BigCodeBench Instruct	—	8.2%
BigCodeBench Complete	—	11.3%

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Granite 4.2 8B: —, Llama 3.2 1B: 14.5 (#142)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Llama 3.2 1B
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard	—	10.8%
BALROG	—	6.6%

Reasoning Granite 4.2 8B leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 25.5 (#130), Llama 3.2 1B: 15.6 (#304)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Llama 3.2 1B
LMArena Hard Prompts	1327	1044
Chess Puzzles	—	0%
Epoch Capabilities Index	—	101.95

Math Not comparable

Granite 4.2 8B: —, Llama 3.2 1B: 9.7 (#308)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Llama 3.2 1B
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	—	0.6%
LMArena Math	—	1086

Knowledge Granite 4.2 8B leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 37.7 (#144), Llama 3.2 1B: 7.2 (#307)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Llama 3.2 1B
LMArena Expert	1380	1007
GPQA Diamond	—	23.9%

Multilingual Granite 4.2 8B leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#173), Llama 3.2 1B: 23.9 (#287)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Llama 3.2 1B
LMArena Non-English	1299	973
LMArena Chinese	1361	958
LMArena Russian	1283	941
LMArena German	—	1014

Instruction Following Granite 4.2 8B leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#183), Llama 3.2 1B: 52.6 (#285)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Llama 3.2 1B
LMArena Instruction Following	1298	1031

Long Context Granite 4.2 8B leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 40.2 (#154), Llama 3.2 1B: 31.9 (#269)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Llama 3.2 1B
LMArena Longer Query	1323	1050

Writing & Preference Granite 4.2 8B leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 49.8 (#183), Llama 3.2 1B: 21.4 (#305)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Llama 3.2 1B
LMArena Text	1319	1055
LMArena Creative Writing	1238	1033
LMArena Multi-Turn	1299	1030
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	—	200

Frequently asked questions

Is Granite 4.2 8B better than Llama 3.2 1B?

Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 8B or Llama 3.2 1B?

Llama 3.2 1B is cheaper. It lists at $0.027 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens; Granite 4.2 8B lists at $0.06 and $0.25.

Is Granite 4.2 8B or Llama 3.2 1B better for coding?

Granite 4.2 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.9 versus 20.6 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Granite 4.2 8B does, with 131K tokens against 60K.

How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 8B and Llama 3.2 1B share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 8B has 11 scored results on Noometry and Llama 3.2 1B has 22.