# Gemma 2 9B vs Granite 4.2 8B

> Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 25.9 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-2-9b-vs-granite-4-2-8b
- 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 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 9.7.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 2 9B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | IBM |
| Noometry Index | 25.9 | 40.5 |
| Rank | 341 | 148 |
| Context | — | 131K |
| Input $/M | — | $0.06 |
| Output $/M | — | $0.25 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Gemma 2 9B: 29.4 (#304)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1173 | 1380 |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 34.7% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | 22.5% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 40.6% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 2 9B: 15.9 (#309)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1171 | 1329 |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 15.2% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 36.4% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 119.83 | — |
| LiveBench | 28.7% | — |
| PIQA | 83.7% | — |

## Math

- Gemma 2 9B: 9.9 (#318)
- Granite 4.2 8B: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| 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 (#305)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1147 | 1384 |
| GPQA Diamond | 27.5% | — |
| BoolQ | 85.7% | — |
| MMLU | 72.1% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 2 9B: 36.6 (#238)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1188 | 1302 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1185 | 1366 |
| LMArena Russian | 1200 | 1285 |
| LMArena French | 1190 | — |
| LMArena German | 1186 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1144 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1137 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1200 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 2 9B: 57.6 (#269)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1178 | 1301 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 52.6% | — |

## Long Context

- Gemma 2 9B: 36.3 (#233)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1197 | 1324 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 2 9B: 32.1 (#281)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1207 | 1320 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1206 | 1236 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1193 | 1301 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 841 | — |
| LiveBench Language | 25.5% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 2 9B better than Granite 4.2 8B?

Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 25.9 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Gemma 2 9B or Granite 4.2 8B better for coding?

Granite 4.2 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.5 versus 29.4 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 2 9B and Granite 4.2 8B share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 2 9B has 35 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 8B has 11.