# Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Granite 4.2 3b

> Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.5 to 39.4 on the Noometry Index.

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

## Summary

- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 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 writing & preference, where Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads 64.2 to 47.2.
- Granite 4.2 3b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | IBM |
| Noometry Index | 41.5 | 39.4 |
| Rank | 133 | 169 |
| Context | 1.05M | — |
| Input $/M | $0.30 | — |
| Output $/M | $2.50 | — |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 42.4 (#104)
- Granite 4.2 3b: 40.0 (#151)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1453 | 1361 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1440 | — |
| SciCode | 41.3% | — |
| WeirdML | 39% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 765.27 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.7 (#107)
- Granite 4.2 3b: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 29.3% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 10% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 27.8 (#114)
- Granite 4.2 3b: 26.0 (#138)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1441 | 1306 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 10.3% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 60.4% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 53.5% | — |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 22% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 19% | — |
| DTBench | 83.5% | — |
| LMCA | 37.6% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 145.13 | — |

## Math

- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.9 (#264)
- Granite 4.2 3b: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 26% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 0% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 71.1% | — |
| ProofBench | 13% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1433 | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 50.1 (#72)
- Granite 4.2 3b: 36.3 (#171)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1435 | 1315 |
| GPQA Diamond | 83.3% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 41.1 (#40)
- Granite 4.2 3b: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1268 | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 53.5 (#63)
- Granite 4.2 3b: 42.1 (#198)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1427 | 1268 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1469 | 1269 |
| LMArena Russian | 1443 | 1249 |
| LMArena French | 1451 | — |
| LMArena German | 1454 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1427 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1407 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1442 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 74.8 (#85)
- Granite 4.2 3b: 67.1 (#200)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1420 | 1273 |

## Long Context

- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 43.9 (#84)
- Granite 4.2 3b: 39.2 (#185)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1435 | 1291 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 64.2 (#57)
- Granite 4.2 3b: 47.2 (#212)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Granite 4.2 3b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1435 | 1293 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1420 | 1205 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1445 | 1290 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1559 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite better than Granite 4.2 3b?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.5 to 39.4 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or Granite 4.2 3b better for coding?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 40.0 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Granite 4.2 3b share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has 39 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 3b has 11.