# Gemma 2 9B vs Granite 4.2 30b

> Granite 4.2 30b is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.4 to 25.7 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-2-9b-vs-granite-4-2-30b
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 11

## Summary

- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 2 9B scores higher in 0 categories and Granite 4.2 30b in 7 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Granite 4.2 30b leads 38.5 to 9.7.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 2 9B | Granite 4.2 30b |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | IBM |
| Noometry Index | 25.7 | 41.4 |
| Rank | 334 | 126 |
| Context | — | — |
| Input $/M | — | — |
| Output $/M | — | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Gemma 2 9B: 29.0 (#299)
- Granite 4.2 30b: 40.4 (#127)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Granite 4.2 30b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1174 | 1394 |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 34.7% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | 22.5% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 40.6% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 2 9B: 15.3 (#306)
- Granite 4.2 30b: 26.7 (#114)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Granite 4.2 30b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1172 | 1375 |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 15.2% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 36.4% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 119.78 | — |
| LiveBench | 28.7% | — |
| PIQA | 83.7% | — |

## Math

- Gemma 2 9B: 9.3 (#312)
- Granite 4.2 30b: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Granite 4.2 30b |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 0.6% | — |
| LiveBench Math | 19.8% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1183 | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 21% | — |
| GSM8K | 84.9% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 2 9B: 9.7 (#300)
- Granite 4.2 30b: 38.5 (#134)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Granite 4.2 30b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1147 | 1405 |
| GPQA Diamond | 27.5% | — |
| BoolQ | 85.7% | — |
| MMLU | 72.1% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 2 9B: 36.8 (#233)
- Granite 4.2 30b: 47.4 (#146)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Granite 4.2 30b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1188 | 1340 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1185 | 1415 |
| LMArena Russian | 1200 | 1342 |
| LMArena French | 1189 | — |
| LMArena German | 1186 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1144 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1137 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1200 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 2 9B: 57.8 (#264)
- Granite 4.2 30b: 71.3 (#150)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Granite 4.2 30b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1178 | 1346 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 52.6% | — |

## Long Context

- Gemma 2 9B: 36.3 (#228)
- Granite 4.2 30b: 41.4 (#135)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Granite 4.2 30b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1197 | 1359 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 2 9B: 32.3 (#276)
- Granite 4.2 30b: 54.3 (#147)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Granite 4.2 30b |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1207 | 1363 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1206 | 1294 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1193 | 1340 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 841 | — |
| LiveBench Language | 25.5% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 2 9B better than Granite 4.2 30b?

Granite 4.2 30b is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.4 to 25.7 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Gemma 2 9B or Granite 4.2 30b better for coding?

Granite 4.2 30b scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.4 versus 29.0 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 2 9B and Granite 4.2 30b share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 2 9B has 35 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 30b has 11.