# Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Granite 4.2 3b

> Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.9 to 39.4 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5-vs-granite-4-2-3b
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 11

## Summary

- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher in 7 categories and Granite 4.2 3b in 0 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads 66.0 to 36.3.
- Granite 4.2 3b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | IBM |
| Noometry Index | 61.9 | 39.4 |
| Rank | 10 | 169 |
| Context | 1M | — |
| Input $/M | $2 | — |
| Output $/M | $10 | — |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 67.3 (#6)
- Granite 4.2 3b: 40.0 (#151)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1513 | 1361 |
| FrontierCode | 52.1% | — |
| CursorBench | 55.5% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1774 | — |
| FrontierSWE | 61.9% | — |
| SciCode | 61% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 1,819 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.0 (#16)
- Granite 4.2 3b: —

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 75.5% | — |

## Reasoning

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 54.0 (#28)
- Granite 4.2 3b: 26.0 (#138)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1495 | 1306 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 80.5% | — |
| CritPt | 31.4% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 65% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 165.03 | — |

## Math

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 87.9 (#6)
- Granite 4.2 3b: —

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 88.8% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 80.5% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 100% | — |
| ProofBench | 100% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1510 | — |
| FrontierMath Erdős | 2.9% | — |

## Knowledge

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#12)
- Granite 4.2 3b: 36.3 (#171)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1540 | 1315 |
| GPQA Diamond | 95.6% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 46.5% | — |

## Multimodal

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 51.5 (#6)
- Granite 4.2 3b: —

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1289 | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 75% | — |

## Multilingual

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 55.3 (#30)
- Granite 4.2 3b: 42.1 (#198)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1452 | 1268 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1522 | 1269 |
| LMArena Russian | 1451 | 1249 |

## Instruction Following

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 78.3 (#11)
- Granite 4.2 3b: 67.1 (#200)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1495 | 1273 |

## Long Context

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.9 (#28)
- Granite 4.2 3b: 39.2 (#185)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1498 | 1291 |

## Writing & Preference

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#40)
- Granite 4.2 3b: 47.2 (#212)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1471 | 1293 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1465 | 1205 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1474 | 1290 |

## FAQ

### Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 better than Granite 4.2 3b?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.9 to 39.4 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Granite 4.2 3b better for coding?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 67.3 versus 40.0 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Granite 4.2 3b share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Claude Sonnet 5.5 has 32 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 3b has 11.