# Granite 4.2 30b vs Step 3.5 Flash

> Granite 4.2 30b and Step 3.5 Flash score almost the same on the Noometry Index (41.8 vs 42.3), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-step-3-5-flash
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 11

## Summary

- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 30b scores higher in 1 category and Step 3.5 Flash in 6 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Granite 4.2 30b leads 27.8 to 22.2.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.2 30b | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 41.8 | 42.3 |
| Rank | 130 | 116 |
| Context | — | 256K |
| Input $/M | — | $0.10 |
| Output $/M | — | $0.30 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Granite 4.2 30b: 41.0 (#126)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 42.4 (#105)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1396 | 1436 |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.2 30b: 27.8 (#112)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 22.2 (#202)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1374 | 1411 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 28.4% |

## Math

- Granite 4.2 30b: —
- Step 3.5 Flash: 42.6 (#84)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 66.8% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1408 |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.2 30b: 39.1 (#138)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 39.6 (#132)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1406 | 1421 |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.2 30b: 47.3 (#151)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 50.5 (#119)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1340 | 1385 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1414 | 1447 |
| LMArena Russian | 1343 | 1385 |
| LMArena French | — | 1421 |
| LMArena German | — | 1405 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1354 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1352 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1419 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.2 30b: 71.2 (#155)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 73.1 (#124)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1347 | 1385 |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.2 30b: 41.4 (#140)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#117)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1359 | 1402 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.2 30b: 53.8 (#156)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 58.8 (#113)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1361 | 1403 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1288 | 1357 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1339 | 1405 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.2 30b better than Step 3.5 Flash?

Granite 4.2 30b and Step 3.5 Flash score almost the same on the Noometry Index (41.8 vs 42.3), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

### Is Granite 4.2 30b or Step 3.5 Flash better for coding?

Step 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 41.0 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 30b and Step 3.5 Flash share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 30b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.