# Granite 4.2 8B vs Grok-2 (Dec 2024)

> Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 33.7 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-4-2-8b-vs-grok-2
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 11

## Summary

- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 8B scores higher in 7 categories and Grok-2 (Dec 2024) in 0 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Granite 4.2 8B leads 26.6 to 16.9.
- Granite 4.2 8B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.2 8B | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | xAI |
| Noometry Index | 40.5 | 33.7 |
| Rank | 148 | 239 |
| Context | 131K | — |
| Input $/M | $0.06 | — |
| Output $/M | $0.25 | — |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)
- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 33.3 (#258)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1380 | 1287 |
| WeirdML | — | 22.2% |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 46.4% |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)
- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 16.9 (#299)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1329 | 1272 |
| SimpleBench | — | 22.7% |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 54.8% |
| DTBench | — | 65.2% |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 54.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 130.48 |
| LiveBench | — | 54.3% |

## Math

- Granite 4.2 8B: —
- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 20.8 (#284)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 11.5% |
| LiveBench Math | — | 54.9% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1283 |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 63.5% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 0.7% |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145)
- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 29.8 (#233)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1384 | 1254 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 53.8% |
| Confabulations | — | 20.1% |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)
- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 43.1 (#188)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1302 | 1282 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1366 | 1289 |
| LMArena Russian | 1285 | 1286 |
| LMArena French | — | 1318 |
| LMArena German | — | 1287 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1244 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1237 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1281 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)
- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 66.9 (#202)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1301 | 1270 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 69.6% |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)
- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 38.8 (#190)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1324 | 1276 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)
- Grok-2 (Dec 2024): 48.6 (#198)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Grok-2 (Dec 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1320 | 1305 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1236 | 1284 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1301 | 1290 |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | — | 63.6% |
| LiveBench Language | — | 45.6% |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.2 8B better than Grok-2 (Dec 2024)?

Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 33.7 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Granite 4.2 8B or Grok-2 (Dec 2024) better for coding?

Granite 4.2 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.5 versus 33.3 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 8B and Grok-2 (Dec 2024) share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 8B has 11 scored results on Noometry and Grok-2 (Dec 2024) has 34.