# Granite 4.2 3b vs Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct

> Granite 4.2 3b is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.4 to 38.1 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-qwen3-coder-480b-a35b-instruct
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 11

## Summary

- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 3b scores higher in 2 categories and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct in 5 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads 55.3 to 47.2.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 39.4 | 38.1 |
| Rank | 169 | 190 |
| Context | — | 262K |
| Input $/M | — | $1.50 |
| Output $/M | — | $7.50 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Granite 4.2 3b: 40.0 (#151)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 35.5 (#223)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1361 | 1412 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 55.4% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1275 |
| GSO | — | 4.9% |
| WeirdML | — | 41.2% |
| ALE-Bench | — | 461.45 |
| AlgoTune | — | 1.44 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Granite 4.2 3b: —
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 23.9 (#123)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 27.2% |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.2 3b: 26.0 (#138)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 25.5 (#149)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1306 | 1372 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 49.5% |

## Math

- Granite 4.2 3b: —
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 37.6 (#150)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | — | 1365 |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.2 3b: 36.3 (#171)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 37.0 (#162)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1315 | 1338 |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.2 3b: 42.1 (#198)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 47.7 (#148)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1268 | 1346 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1269 | 1357 |
| LMArena Russian | 1249 | 1366 |
| LMArena French | — | 1398 |
| LMArena German | — | 1325 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1310 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1305 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1360 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.2 3b: 67.1 (#200)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 71.6 (#147)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1273 | 1355 |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.2 3b: 39.2 (#185)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 42.0 (#131)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1291 | 1378 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.2 3b: 47.2 (#212)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 55.3 (#147)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1293 | 1357 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1205 | 1333 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1290 | 1365 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.2 3b better than Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?

Granite 4.2 3b is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.4 to 38.1 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Granite 4.2 3b or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct better for coding?

Granite 4.2 3b scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.0 versus 35.5 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 3b and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 3b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct has 25.