Model comparison
Granite 4.2 8B vs Nemotron 3 Ultra
Nemotron 3 Ultra is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.5 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.2 8B costs 9.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Nemotron 3 Ultra's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.
NVIDIASummary
- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 8B scores higher in 1 category and Nemotron 3 Ultra in 6 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Nemotron 3 Ultra leads 66.3 to 49.6.
- Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $0.60 / $2.40 for Nemotron 3 Ultra.
- Nemotron 3 Ultra accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.
Side by side
| Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | NVIDIA |
| Noometry Index | 40.5 | 42.5 |
| Released | — | 2026-06-04 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 131K | 262K |
| Max output | 118K | 128K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.06 | $0.60 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.25 | $2.40 |
| Results tracked | 11 | 30 |
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Category by category
Coding Granite 4.2 8B leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137), Nemotron 3 Ultra: 38.1 (#182)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1380 | 1468 |
| FrontierCode | — | 13.6% |
| SciCode | — | 40.3% |
| WeirdML | — | 43.5% |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Granite 4.2 8B: —, Nemotron 3 Ultra: 23.4 (#126)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 22.7% |
Reasoning Nemotron 3 Ultra leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131), Nemotron 3 Ultra: 31.0 (#82)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1329 | 1452 |
| CritPt | — | 3.1% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 12% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 20% |
| DTBench | — | 90.1% |
| LMCA | — | 36.9% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 146.17 |
Math Not comparable
Granite 4.2 8B: —, Nemotron 3 Ultra: 35.3 (#187)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 86.7% |
| ProofBench | — | 2% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1457 |
Knowledge Nemotron 3 Ultra leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145), Nemotron 3 Ultra: 52.5 (#61)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1384 | 1472 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 85.4% |
Multilingual Nemotron 3 Ultra leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178), Nemotron 3 Ultra: 53.5 (#64)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1302 | 1427 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1366 | 1497 |
| LMArena Russian | 1285 | 1417 |
| LMArena French | — | 1472 |
| LMArena German | — | 1471 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1386 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1454 |
Instruction Following Nemotron 3 Ultra leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184), Nemotron 3 Ultra: 74.7 (#88)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1301 | 1418 |
Long Context Nemotron 3 Ultra leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159), Nemotron 3 Ultra: 43.9 (#81)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1324 | 1437 |
Writing & Preference Nemotron 3 Ultra leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189), Nemotron 3 Ultra: 66.3 (#36)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1320 | 1445 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1236 | 1398 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1301 | 1411 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1692 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.2 8B better than Nemotron 3 Ultra?
Nemotron 3 Ultra is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.5 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.2 8B costs 9.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Nemotron 3 Ultra's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 8B or Nemotron 3 Ultra?
Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; Nemotron 3 Ultra lists at $0.60 and $2.40.
Is Granite 4.2 8B or Nemotron 3 Ultra better for coding?
Granite 4.2 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.5 versus 38.1 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Nemotron 3 Ultra does, with 262K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 8B and Nemotron 3 Ultra share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 8B has 11 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3 Ultra has 30.