# Granite 4.2 3b vs Nova 2 Lite

> Granite 4.2 3b and Nova 2 Lite score almost the same on the Noometry Index (39.4 vs 39.7), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-nova-2-lite
- 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 0 categories and Nova 2 Lite in 7 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Nova 2 Lite leads 43.0 to 36.3.
- Granite 4.2 3b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.2 3b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Amazon |
| Noometry Index | 39.4 | 39.7 |
| Rank | 169 | 161 |
| Context | — | 1M |
| Input $/M | — | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | — | $2.50 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Granite 4.2 3b: 40.0 (#151)
- Nova 2 Lite: 40.7 (#134)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1361 | 1385 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Granite 4.2 3b: —
- Nova 2 Lite: 24.1 (#121)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 27.1% |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.2 3b: 26.0 (#138)
- Nova 2 Lite: 27.5 (#118)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1306 | 1364 |

## Math

- Granite 4.2 3b: —
- Nova 2 Lite: 37.5 (#156)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | — | 1359 |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.2 3b: 36.3 (#171)
- Nova 2 Lite: 43.0 (#94)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1315 | 1358 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 5.1% |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.2 3b: 42.1 (#198)
- Nova 2 Lite: 47.1 (#153)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1268 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1269 | 1364 |
| LMArena Russian | 1249 | 1343 |
| LMArena French | — | 1381 |
| LMArena German | — | 1343 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1271 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1284 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1373 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.2 3b: 67.1 (#200)
- Nova 2 Lite: 70.5 (#161)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1273 | 1335 |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.2 3b: 39.2 (#185)
- Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#150)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1291 | 1335 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.2 3b: 47.2 (#212)
- Nova 2 Lite: 53.9 (#154)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1293 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1205 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1290 | 1338 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.2 3b better than Nova 2 Lite?

Granite 4.2 3b and Nova 2 Lite score almost the same on the Noometry Index (39.4 vs 39.7), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

### Is Granite 4.2 3b or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (40.0 vs 40.7); test both on your own repository before choosing.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 3b and Nova 2 Lite share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 3b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.