# Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Granite 3.1 8b Instruct

> Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-3-6-flash-vs-granite-3-1-8b-instruct
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 12

## Summary

- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher in 9 categories and Granite 3.1 8b Instruct in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.6 Flash leads 58.9 to 21.2.
- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | IBM |
| Noometry Index | 54.1 | 31.8 |
| Rank | 30 | 256 |
| Context | 1.05M | — |
| Input $/M | $0.75 | — |
| Output $/M | $3.75 | — |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 49.6 (#45)
- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 33.9 (#232)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1492 | 1186 |
| DeepSWE | 46.7% | — |
| FrontierCode | 34.4% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1536 | — |
| SciCode | 52.7% | — |
| WeirdML | 56.1% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 715.52 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 32.4 (#56)
- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 23.9 (#113)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 46.9% | — |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 27.1% |
| GDP.pdf | 14% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 58.9 (#20)
- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 21.2 (#204)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1486 | 1146 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 60.4% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 89% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 91.2% | — |
| CritPt | 10.6% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 43% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 30% | — |
| DTBench | 95.5% | — |
| LMCA | 44.9% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 154.36 | — |

## Math

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 57.0 (#33)
- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 30.4 (#210)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1504 | 1152 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 58.9% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 22% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 70.8% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 94.2% | — |
| ProofBench | 36% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 67.8 (#7)
- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 30.6 (#218)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1489 | 1142 |
| GPQA Diamond | 94.1% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 66.2% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 38.7 (#55)
- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1297 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 31.2% | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 23.3% | — |
| LMArena Document | 1456 | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 56.8 (#17)
- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 31.1 (#255)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1470 | 1099 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1530 | 1145 |
| LMArena Russian | 1490 | 1092 |
| LMArena French | 1501 | — |
| LMArena German | 1478 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1477 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1435 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1477 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 77.2 (#27)
- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 58.9 (#254)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1467 | 1131 |

## Long Context

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 45.1 (#47)
- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 35.2 (#236)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1475 | 1162 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 68.3 (#26)
- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 35.7 (#261)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1478 | 1150 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1464 | 1129 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1481 | 1108 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1604 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemini 3.6 Flash better than Granite 3.1 8b Instruct?

Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Gemini 3.6 Flash or Granite 3.1 8b Instruct better for coding?

Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 49.6 versus 33.9 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.6 Flash and Granite 3.1 8b Instruct share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.6 Flash has 46 scored results on Noometry and Granite 3.1 8b Instruct has 13.