Model comparison
Granite 4.2 8B vs Qwen3.6 Flash
Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 38.4 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.6 Flash leads 42.2 to 37.7.
- Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $0.19 / $1.13 for Qwen3.6 Flash.
- Qwen3.6 Flash accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.
- Granite 4.2 8B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3.6 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 40.0 | 38.4 |
| Released | — | 2026-04-27 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 131K | 1M |
| Max output | 118K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.06 | $0.19 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.25 | $1.13 |
| Results tracked | 11 | 13 |
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Category by category
Coding Not comparable
Granite 4.2 8B: 39.9 (#138), Qwen3.6 Flash: —
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1379 | — |
| ALE-Bench | — | 326.4 |
Reasoning Qwen3.6 Flash leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 25.5 (#130), Qwen3.6 Flash: 28.4 (#90)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| SimpleBench | — | 35.2% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 20% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1327 | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 18% |
| DTBench | — | 77.1% |
| LMCA | — | 31% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 143.26 |
Math Not comparable
Granite 4.2 8B: —, Qwen3.6 Flash: 38.0 (#88)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 22.5% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 84.4% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 10.3% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 0% |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 Flash leads
Granite 4.2 8B: 37.7 (#144), Qwen3.6 Flash: 42.2 (#90)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | — | 83.3% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 15.9% |
| LMArena Expert | 1380 | — |
Multilingual Not comparable
Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#173), Qwen3.6 Flash: —
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1299 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1361 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1283 | — |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#183), Qwen3.6 Flash: —
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1298 | — |
Long Context Not comparable
Granite 4.2 8B: 40.2 (#154), Qwen3.6 Flash: —
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1323 | — |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Granite 4.2 8B: 49.8 (#183), Qwen3.6 Flash: —
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1319 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1238 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1299 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.2 8B better than Qwen3.6 Flash?
Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 38.4 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 8B or Qwen3.6 Flash?
Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Flash lists at $0.19 and $1.13.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.6 Flash does, with 1M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 8B and Qwen3.6 Flash share?
0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 8B has 11 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Flash has 13.