# Granite 4.0 Micro vs Granite 4.2 8B

> Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 29.0 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.0 Micro costs 2.6× 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/granite-4-0-micro-vs-granite-4-2-8b
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 0

## Summary

- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Granite 4.2 8B leads 38.4 to 9.9.
- Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper at $0.017 / $0.11 per million input/output tokens, against $0.06 / $0.25 for Granite 4.2 8B.
- Granite 4.2 8B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 131K.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.0 Micro | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | IBM |
| Noometry Index | 29.0 | 40.5 |
| Rank | 318 | 148 |
| Context | 131K | 131K |
| Input $/M | $0.017 | $0.06 |
| Output $/M | $0.11 | $0.25 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Granite 4.0 Micro: —
- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | — | 1380 |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.0 Micro: 19.2 (#265)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1329 |

## Math

- Granite 4.0 Micro: 12.0 (#307)
- Granite 4.2 8B: —

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 2.8% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 20.9% | — |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.0 Micro: 9.9 (#304)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 28.3% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 39.5% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 30.7% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1384 |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.0 Micro: —
- Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1302 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1366 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1285 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.0 Micro: 69.9 (#169)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| IFEval | 84.9% | — |
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1301 |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.0 Micro: —
- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1324 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.0 Micro: 46.7 (#216)
- Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1320 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1236 |
| WildBench | 67% | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1301 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.0 Micro better than Granite 4.2 8B?

Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 29.0 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.0 Micro costs 2.6× 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, Granite 4.0 Micro or Granite 4.2 8B?

Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper. It lists at $0.017 per million input tokens and $0.11 per million output tokens; Granite 4.2 8B lists at $0.06 and $0.25.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Granite 4.2 8B does, with 131K tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.0 Micro and Granite 4.2 8B share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.0 Micro has 8 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 8B has 11.