# Granite 4.2 3b vs Mistral

> Granite 4.2 3b is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.4 to 29.9 on the Noometry Index.

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

## Summary

- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 3b scores higher in 7 categories and Mistral in 0 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Granite 4.2 3b leads 36.3 to 16.6.
- Granite 4.2 3b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 39.4 | 29.9 |
| Rank | 169 | 303 |
| Context | — | — |
| Input $/M | — | — |
| Output $/M | — | — |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Granite 4.2 3b: 40.0 (#151)
- Mistral: 33.8 (#250)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1361 | 1162 |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.2 3b: 26.0 (#138)
- Mistral: 22.2 (#200)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1306 | 1149 |

## Math

- Granite 4.2 3b: —
- Mistral: 22.3 (#278)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| Omni-MATH | — | 7.2% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1180 |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.2 3b: 36.3 (#171)
- Mistral: 16.6 (#288)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1315 | 1125 |
| MMLU-Pro | — | 27.7% |
| GPQA (HELM) | — | 30.3% |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.2 3b: 42.1 (#198)
- Mistral: 32.8 (#254)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1268 | 1129 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1269 | 1109 |
| LMArena Russian | 1249 | 1168 |
| LMArena French | — | 1180 |
| LMArena German | — | 1155 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1013 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1032 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1143 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.2 3b: 67.1 (#200)
- Mistral: 52.6 (#288)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1273 | 1152 |
| IFEval | — | 56.8% |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.2 3b: 39.2 (#185)
- Mistral: 35.0 (#245)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1291 | 1153 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.2 3b: 47.2 (#212)
- Mistral: 37.0 (#260)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Mistral |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1293 | 1165 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1205 | 1158 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1290 | 1147 |
| WildBench | — | 66% |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.2 3b better than Mistral?

Granite 4.2 3b is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.4 to 29.9 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Granite 4.2 3b or Mistral better for coding?

Granite 4.2 3b scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.0 versus 33.8 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 3b and Mistral share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 3b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Mistral has 22.