# Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B vs Granite 4.2 8B

> Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 29.9 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-1-5-flash-8b-vs-granite-4-2-8b
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 11

## Summary

- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B scores higher in 0 categories and Granite 4.2 8B in 7 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Granite 4.2 8B leads 38.4 to 16.0.
- Granite 4.2 8B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | IBM |
| Noometry Index | 29.9 | 40.5 |
| Rank | 301 | 148 |
| Context | — | 131K |
| Input $/M | — | $0.06 |
| Output $/M | — | $0.25 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B: 35.5 (#225)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)

| Benchmark | Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1218 | 1380 |

## Reasoning

- Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B: 20.0 (#244)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)

| Benchmark | Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1209 | 1329 |
| DTBench | 50% | — |

## Math

- Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B: 14.2 (#302)
- Granite 4.2 8B: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 4.6% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1207 | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B: 16.0 (#289)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145)

| Benchmark | Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1185 | 1384 |
| GPQA Diamond | 33% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B: 28.2 (#115)
- Granite 4.2 8B: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1044 | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B: 38.5 (#229)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)

| Benchmark | Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1215 | 1302 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1231 | 1366 |
| LMArena Russian | 1236 | 1285 |
| LMArena French | 1234 | — |
| LMArena German | 1206 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1150 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1140 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1212 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B: 62.8 (#236)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)

| Benchmark | Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1199 | 1301 |

## Long Context

- Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B: 37.0 (#225)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)

| Benchmark | Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1219 | 1324 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B: 42.8 (#232)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)

| Benchmark | Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1226 | 1320 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1218 | 1236 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1185 | 1301 |

## FAQ

### Is Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B better than Granite 4.2 8B?

Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 29.9 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B or Granite 4.2 8B better for coding?

Granite 4.2 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.5 versus 35.5 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B and Granite 4.2 8B share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B has 21 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 8B has 11.