# Granite 3.1 8b Instruct vs Yi-Lightning

> Yi-Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.1 to 32.4 on the Noometry Index.

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

## Summary

- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 3.1 8b Instruct scores higher in 1 category and Yi-Lightning in 7 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Yi-Lightning leads 50.2 to 35.5.
- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | 01.AI |
| Noometry Index | 32.4 | 37.1 |
| Rank | 258 | 209 |
| Context | — | — |
| Input $/M | — | — |
| Output $/M | — | — |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 34.5 (#233)
- Yi-Lightning: 27.4 (#320)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1186 | 1312 |
| Aider Polyglot | — | 12.9% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 24.1 (#120)
- Yi-Lightning: —

| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 27.1% | — |

## Reasoning

- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 22.1 (#207)
- Yi-Lightning: 25.9 (#139)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1145 | 1302 |

## Math

- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 33.0 (#209)
- Yi-Lightning: 36.2 (#172)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1152 | 1300 |

## Knowledge

- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 31.1 (#220)
- Yi-Lightning: 35.4 (#185)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1142 | 1286 |

## Multilingual

- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 30.9 (#260)
- Yi-Lightning: 42.2 (#196)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1099 | 1269 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1145 | 1320 |
| LMArena Russian | 1092 | 1255 |
| LMArena French | — | 1305 |
| LMArena German | — | 1267 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1228 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1192 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1315 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 58.6 (#259)
- Yi-Lightning: 67.4 (#196)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1131 | 1278 |

## Long Context

- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 35.2 (#241)
- Yi-Lightning: 39.4 (#181)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1162 | 1297 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 35.5 (#266)
- Yi-Lightning: 50.2 (#184)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1150 | 1302 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1129 | 1280 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1108 | 1311 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 3.1 8b Instruct better than Yi-Lightning?

Yi-Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.1 to 32.4 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Granite 3.1 8b Instruct or Yi-Lightning better for coding?

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct scores higher on coding benchmarks: 34.5 versus 27.4 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 3.1 8b Instruct and Yi-Lightning share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 3.1 8b Instruct has 13 scored results on Noometry and Yi-Lightning has 18.