# Granite 4.2 8B vs Magistral Small

> Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 29.9 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-4-2-8b-vs-magistral-small
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 0

## Summary

- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Granite 4.2 8B leads 25.5 to 6.9.
- Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $1.50 for Magistral Small.
- Granite 4.2 8B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 128K.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.2 8B | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 40.0 | 29.9 |
| Rank | 143 | 289 |
| Context | 131K | 128K |
| Input $/M | $0.06 | $0.50 |
| Output $/M | $0.25 | $1.50 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Granite 4.2 8B: 39.9 (#138)
- Magistral Small: 37.8 (#172)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | — | 35.2% |
| LMArena Coding | 1379 | — |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.2 8B: 25.5 (#130)
- Magistral Small: 6.9 (#345)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| ARC-AGI-2 | — | 0% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 6.3% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | — | 5% |
| CritPt | — | 0.3% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 3% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1327 | — |
| DTBench | — | 61.3% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 133.19 |

## Math

- Granite 4.2 8B: —
- Magistral Small: 24.9 (#253)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 30% |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.2 8B: 37.7 (#144)
- Magistral Small: 30.9 (#215)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | — | 56.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1380 | — |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#173)
- Magistral Small: —

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1299 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1361 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1283 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#183)
- Magistral Small: —

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1298 | — |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.2 (#154)
- Magistral Small: —

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1323 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.2 8B: 49.8 (#183)
- Magistral Small: —

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1319 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1238 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1299 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.2 8B better than Magistral Small?

Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 29.9 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 8B or Magistral Small?

Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; Magistral Small lists at $0.50 and $1.50.

### Is Granite 4.2 8B or Magistral Small better for coding?

Granite 4.2 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.9 versus 37.8 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Granite 4.2 8B does, with 131K tokens against 128K.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 8B and Magistral Small share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 8B has 11 scored results on Noometry and Magistral Small has 10.