# Gemma 3 4B vs Granite 4.2 8B

> Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 2.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Granite 4.2 8B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-4b-vs-granite-4-2-8b
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 10

## Summary

- They share 10 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 4B 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 37.7 to 11.8.
- Gemma 3 4B is cheaper at $0.04 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.06 / $0.25 for Granite 4.2 8B.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 3 4B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | IBM |
| Noometry Index | 27.9 | 40.0 |
| Rank | 320 | 143 |
| Context | 131K | 131K |
| Input $/M | $0.04 | $0.06 |
| Output $/M | $0.08 | $0.25 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Gemma 3 4B: 35.3 (#214)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 39.9 (#138)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1230 | 1379 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 3 4B: 20.7 (#134)
- Granite 4.2 8B: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 19.6% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 3 4B: 12.7 (#330)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 25.5 (#130)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1253 | 1327 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 25.2% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| DTBench | 50.9% | — |
| LMCA | 2.8% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 116.02 | — |

## Math

- Gemma 3 4B: 15.8 (#286)
- Granite 4.2 8B: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 7.5% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1239 | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 3 4B: 11.8 (#294)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 37.7 (#144)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1223 | 1380 |
| GPQA Diamond | 23.2% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 6.4% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 3 4B: 42.7 (#189)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#173)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1273 | 1299 |
| LMArena Russian | 1294 | 1283 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1361 |
| LMArena German | 1281 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 3 4B: 65.4 (#219)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#183)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1239 | 1298 |

## Long Context

- Gemma 3 4B: 38.6 (#189)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.2 (#154)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1274 | 1323 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 3 4B: 42.2 (#234)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 49.8 (#183)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1291 | 1319 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1270 | 1238 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1255 | 1299 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1068 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 3 4B better than Granite 4.2 8B?

Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 2.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Granite 4.2 8B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 4B or Granite 4.2 8B?

Gemma 3 4B is cheaper. It lists at $0.04 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Granite 4.2 8B lists at $0.06 and $0.25.

### Is Gemma 3 4B or Granite 4.2 8B better for coding?

Granite 4.2 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.9 versus 35.3 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 131K tokens.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 4B and Granite 4.2 8B share?

10 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 4B has 22 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 8B has 11.