# Granite 4.2 8B vs Llama 3.2 3B

> Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 28.9 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-4-2-8b-vs-llama-3-2-3b
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 11

## Summary

- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 8B scores higher in 7 categories and Llama 3.2 3B in 0 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Granite 4.2 8B leads 49.6 to 24.7.
- Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $0.05 / $0.33 for Llama 3.2 3B.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.2 8B | Llama 3.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Meta |
| Noometry Index | 40.5 | 28.9 |
| Rank | 148 | 321 |
| Context | 131K | 131K |
| Input $/M | $0.06 | $0.05 |
| Output $/M | $0.25 | $0.33 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)
- Llama 3.2 3B: 27.6 (#319)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Llama 3.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1380 | 1098 |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 23.4% |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 28.3% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Granite 4.2 8B: —
- Llama 3.2 3B: 20.1 (#143)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Llama 3.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 21.9% |
| BALROG | — | 10.1% |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)
- Llama 3.2 3B: 21.0 (#228)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Llama 3.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1329 | 1095 |

## Math

- Granite 4.2 8B: —
- Llama 3.2 3B: 32.4 (#214)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Llama 3.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | — | 1126 |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145)
- Llama 3.2 3B: 29.7 (#235)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Llama 3.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1384 | 1090 |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)
- Llama 3.2 3B: 26.2 (#281)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Llama 3.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1302 | 1019 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1366 | 1017 |
| LMArena Russian | 1285 | 949 |
| LMArena German | — | 1056 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)
- Llama 3.2 3B: 56.0 (#275)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Llama 3.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1301 | 1089 |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)
- Llama 3.2 3B: 33.4 (#261)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Llama 3.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1324 | 1100 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)
- Llama 3.2 3B: 24.7 (#307)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Llama 3.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1320 | 1110 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1236 | 1094 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1301 | 1105 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 595 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.2 8B better than Llama 3.2 3B?

Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 28.9 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 8B or Llama 3.2 3B?

Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; Llama 3.2 3B lists at $0.05 and $0.33.

### Is Granite 4.2 8B or Llama 3.2 3B better for coding?

Granite 4.2 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.5 versus 27.6 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 131K tokens.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 8B and Llama 3.2 3B share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 8B has 11 scored results on Noometry and Llama 3.2 3B has 18.