# Granite 4.2 3b vs Step 3

> Granite 4.2 3b and Step 3 score almost the same on the Noometry Index (39.0 vs 39.9), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

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

## Summary

- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 3b scores higher in 0 categories and Step 3 in 7 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Step 3 leads 54.5 to 47.9.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.2 3b | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 39.0 | 39.9 |
| Rank | 163 | 145 |
| Context | — | — |
| Input $/M | — | — |
| Output $/M | — | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Granite 4.2 3b: 39.4 (#146)
- Step 3: 39.5 (#144)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1363 | 1367 |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.2 3b: 25.0 (#136)
- Step 3: 27.6 (#102)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1308 | 1355 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 62.3% |

## Math

- Granite 4.2 3b: —
- Step 3: 34.9 (#148)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | — | 1366 |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.2 3b: 35.6 (#169)
- Step 3: 36.2 (#161)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1313 | 1333 |

## Multimodal

- Granite 4.2 3b: —
- Step 3: 34.9 (#81)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1176 |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.2 3b: 42.4 (#193)
- Step 3: 46.5 (#154)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1268 | 1327 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1268 | 1396 |
| LMArena Russian | 1249 | 1331 |
| LMArena German | — | 1371 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1271 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1372 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.2 3b: 67.2 (#195)
- Step 3: 70.6 (#159)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1271 | 1332 |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.2 3b: 39.3 (#179)
- Step 3: 40.3 (#152)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1293 | 1326 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.2 3b: 47.9 (#202)
- Step 3: 54.5 (#146)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1295 | 1351 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1215 | 1322 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1293 | 1340 |

## FAQ

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

Granite 4.2 3b and Step 3 score almost the same on the Noometry Index (39.0 vs 39.9), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

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

They score almost the same on coding (39.4 vs 39.5); test both on your own repository before choosing.

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

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 3b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Step 3 has 17.