# Gemma 2B vs Granite 4.2 8B

> Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 29.6 on the Noometry Index.

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

## Summary

- They share 10 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 2B scores higher in 0 categories and Granite 4.2 8B in 6 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Granite 4.2 8B leads 49.6 to 24.0.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 2B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | IBM |
| Noometry Index | 29.6 | 40.5 |
| Rank | 307 | 148 |
| Context | — | 131K |
| Input $/M | — | $0.06 |
| Output $/M | — | $0.25 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Gemma 2B: 29.4 (#305)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1010 | 1380 |
| HumanEval+ | 20.7% | — |
| MBPP+ | 34.1% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 2B: 18.8 (#275)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 989 | 1329 |
| BIG-Bench Hard | 35.2% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 94.2 | — |
| HellaSwag | 71.4% | — |
| PIQA | 77.3% | — |
| WinoGrande | 65.4% | — |

## Math

- Gemma 2B: 30.0 (#239)
- Granite 4.2 8B: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 2B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1009 | — |
| GSM8K | 17.7% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 2B: —
- Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | — | 1384 |
| ARC (AI2) Challenge | 42.1% | — |
| BoolQ | 69.4% | — |
| MMLU | 42.3% | — |
| TriviaQA | 53.2% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 2B: 23.0 (#294)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 958 | 1302 |
| LMArena Chinese | 986 | 1366 |
| LMArena Russian | 937 | 1285 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 2B: 48.5 (#302)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 970 | 1301 |

## Long Context

- Gemma 2B: 29.9 (#291)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 981 | 1324 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 2B: 24.0 (#308)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1002 | 1320 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 987 | 1236 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 945 | 1301 |

## FAQ

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

Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 29.6 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Gemma 2B 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 2B and Granite 4.2 8B share?

10 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 2B has 23 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 8B has 11.