# Granite 3.0 8b Instruct vs Llama 3.2 1B

> Granite 3.0 8b Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 31.6 to 20.1 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-3-0-8b-instruct-vs-llama-3-2-1b
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 14

## Summary

- They share 14 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 3.0 8b Instruct scores higher in 8 categories and Llama 3.2 1B in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Granite 3.0 8b Instruct leads 29.6 to 7.2.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is BigCodeBench Complete: 35.4% for Granite 3.0 8b Instruct and 11.3% for Llama 3.2 1B.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Llama 3.2 1B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Meta |
| Noometry Index | 31.6 | 20.1 |
| Rank | 270 | 354 |
| Context | — | 60K |
| Input $/M | — | $0.027 |
| Output $/M | — | $0.20 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 29.7 (#301)
- Llama 3.2 1B: 21.1 (#338)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Llama 3.2 1B |
|---|---|---|
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 29.3% | 8.2% |
| LMArena Coding | 1112 | 1070 |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 35.4% | 11.3% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: —
- Llama 3.2 1B: 14.6 (#150)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Llama 3.2 1B |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 10.8% |
| BALROG | — | 6.6% |

## Reasoning

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 20.9 (#230)
- Llama 3.2 1B: 16.2 (#308)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Llama 3.2 1B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1092 | 1044 |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 0% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 101.99 |

## Math

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 32.8 (#210)
- Llama 3.2 1B: 10.4 (#313)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Llama 3.2 1B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1143 | 1086 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 0.6% |

## Knowledge

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 29.6 (#236)
- Llama 3.2 1B: 7.2 (#312)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Llama 3.2 1B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1087 | 1007 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 23.9% |

## Multilingual

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 27.2 (#276)
- Llama 3.2 1B: 23.8 (#292)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Llama 3.2 1B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1037 | 973 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1063 | 959 |
| LMArena Russian | 1060 | 941 |
| LMArena German | — | 1014 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 56.0 (#276)
- Llama 3.2 1B: 52.4 (#290)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Llama 3.2 1B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1088 | 1031 |

## Long Context

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 34.0 (#252)
- Llama 3.2 1B: 31.9 (#274)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Llama 3.2 1B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1122 | 1050 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 31.1 (#285)
- Llama 3.2 1B: 21.3 (#310)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Llama 3.2 1B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1096 | 1055 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1071 | 1033 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1063 | 1030 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 200 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 3.0 8b Instruct better than Llama 3.2 1B?

Granite 3.0 8b Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 31.6 to 20.1 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Granite 3.0 8b Instruct or Llama 3.2 1B better for coding?

Granite 3.0 8b Instruct scores higher on coding benchmarks: 29.7 versus 21.1 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 3.0 8b Instruct and Llama 3.2 1B share?

14 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 3.0 8b Instruct has 14 scored results on Noometry and Llama 3.2 1B has 22.