Model comparison

Granite 4.2 8B vs Mistral Large 4

Mistral Large 4 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.1 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.2 8B costs 9.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Mistral Large 4's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 11, 2026. 11 shared benchmarks.

Granite 4.2 8B IBM

40.5

Rank #148 Confirmed

Mistral Large 4

Mistral AI

43.1

Rank #99 Confirmed

Summary

They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 8B scores higher in 2 categories and Mistral Large 4 in 5 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Mistral Large 4 leads 60.4 to 49.6.
Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $0.68 / $2.09 for Mistral Large 4.
Mistral Large 4 accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 131K.
Granite 4.2 8B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Granite 4.2 8B and Mistral Large 4 specifications
	Granite 4.2 8B	Mistral Large 4
Provider	IBM	Mistral AI
Noometry Index	40.5	43.1
Released	—	2026-10-06
Weights	Open	Proprietary
Context window	131K	1.05M
Max output	118K	262K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.06	$0.68
Output $ / M tokens	$0.25	$2.09
Results tracked	11	15

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Category by category

Coding Mistral Large 4 leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137), Mistral Large 4: 48.6 (#57)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Mistral Large 4
LMArena Coding	1380	1475
LMArena WebDev	—	1541

Reasoning Granite 4.2 8B leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131), Mistral Large 4: 22.5 (#192)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Mistral Large 4
LMArena Hard Prompts	1329	1444
NYT Connections (extended)	—	27.4%

Math Not comparable

Granite 4.2 8B: —, Mistral Large 4: 40.4 (#91)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Mistral Large 4
LMArena Math	—	1488

Knowledge Granite 4.2 8B leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145), Mistral Large 4: 36.6 (#166)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Mistral Large 4
LMArena Expert	1384	1447
SimpleQA Verified	—	20%

Multilingual Mistral Large 4 leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178), Mistral Large 4: 52.6 (#82)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Mistral Large 4
LMArena Non-English	1302	1415
LMArena Chinese	1366	1491
LMArena Russian	1285	1414

Instruction Following Mistral Large 4 leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184), Mistral Large 4: 75.0 (#76)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Mistral Large 4
LMArena Instruction Following	1301	1424

Long Context Mistral Large 4 leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159), Mistral Large 4: 43.6 (#89)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Mistral Large 4
LMArena Longer Query	1324	1429

Writing & Preference Mistral Large 4 leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189), Mistral Large 4: 60.4 (#97)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Mistral Large 4
LMArena Text	1320	1427
LMArena Creative Writing	1236	1361
LMArena Multi-Turn	1301	1424

Frequently asked questions

Is Granite 4.2 8B better than Mistral Large 4?

Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 8B or Mistral Large 4?

Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; Mistral Large 4 lists at $0.68 and $2.09.

Is Granite 4.2 8B or Mistral Large 4 better for coding?

Mistral Large 4 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.6 versus 40.5 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Mistral Large 4 does, with 1.05M tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 8B and Mistral Large 4 share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 8B has 11 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Large 4 has 15.