Model comparison

Granite 4.2 8B vs Solar Pro4

Solar Pro4 is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.1 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.2 8B costs 4.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Solar Pro4's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 11 shared benchmarks.

Granite 4.2 8B IBM

40.5

Rank #148 Confirmed

Solar Pro4

Upstage

42.1

Rank #121 Confirmed

Summary

They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 8B scores higher in 1 category and Solar Pro4 in 6 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Solar Pro4 leads 56.5 to 49.6.
Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for Solar Pro4.
Solar Pro4 accepts more context: 524K tokens versus 131K.
Granite 4.2 8B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Granite 4.2 8B and Solar Pro4 specifications
	Granite 4.2 8B	Solar Pro4
Provider	IBM	Upstage
Noometry Index	40.5	42.1
Released	—	2026-08-06
Weights	Open	Proprietary
Context window	131K	524K
Max output	118K	131K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.06	$0.30
Output $ / M tokens	$0.25	$1.20
Results tracked	11	18

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Category by category

Coding Too close to call

Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137), Solar Pro4: 40.1 (#149)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Solar Pro4
LMArena Coding	1380	1437
LMArena WebDev	—	1371

Reasoning Solar Pro4 leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131), Solar Pro4: 28.5 (#104)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Solar Pro4
LMArena Hard Prompts	1329	1399

Math Not comparable

Granite 4.2 8B: —, Solar Pro4: 38.8 (#128)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Solar Pro4
LMArena Math	—	1416

Knowledge Solar Pro4 leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145), Solar Pro4: 39.8 (#129)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Solar Pro4
LMArena Expert	1384	1427

Multilingual Solar Pro4 leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178), Solar Pro4: 48.7 (#139)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Solar Pro4
LMArena Non-English	1302	1361
LMArena Chinese	1366	1415
LMArena Russian	1285	1360
LMArena French	—	1397
LMArena German	—	1364
LMArena Japanese	—	1309
LMArena Korean	—	1382
LMArena Spanish	—	1401

Instruction Following Solar Pro4 leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184), Solar Pro4: 72.7 (#132)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Solar Pro4
LMArena Instruction Following	1301	1377

Long Context Solar Pro4 leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159), Solar Pro4: 42.1 (#130)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Solar Pro4
LMArena Longer Query	1324	1381

Writing & Preference Solar Pro4 leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189), Solar Pro4: 56.5 (#138)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	Solar Pro4
LMArena Text	1320	1386
LMArena Creative Writing	1236	1316
LMArena Multi-Turn	1301	1385

Frequently asked questions

Is Granite 4.2 8B better than Solar Pro4?

Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 8B or Solar Pro4?

Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; Solar Pro4 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.

Is Granite 4.2 8B or Solar Pro4 better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (40.5 vs 40.1); test both on your own repository before choosing.

Which has the bigger context window?

Solar Pro4 does, with 524K tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 8B and Solar Pro4 share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 8B has 11 scored results on Noometry and Solar Pro4 has 18.