# Granite 4.2 8B vs Qwen3 Coder Next

> Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 34.3 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-4-2-8b-vs-qwen3-coder-next
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 0

## Summary

- The widest gap is in coding, where Granite 4.2 8B leads 40.5 to 36.3.
- Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $0.12 / $0.80 for Qwen3 Coder Next.
- Qwen3 Coder Next accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3 Coder Next |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 40.5 | 34.3 |
| Rank | 148 | 232 |
| Context | 131K | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.06 | $0.12 |
| Output $/M | $0.25 | $0.80 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)
- Qwen3 Coder Next: 36.3 (#210)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3 Coder Next |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | — | 32.3% |
| WeirdML | — | 34.4% |
| LMArena Coding | 1380 | — |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)
- Qwen3 Coder Next: 22.4 (#196)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3 Coder Next |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | — | 0% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1329 | — |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145)
- Qwen3 Coder Next: —

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3 Coder Next |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1384 | — |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)
- Qwen3 Coder Next: —

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3 Coder Next |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1302 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1366 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1285 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)
- Qwen3 Coder Next: —

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3 Coder Next |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1301 | — |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)
- Qwen3 Coder Next: —

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3 Coder Next |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1324 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)
- Qwen3 Coder Next: —

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3 Coder Next |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1320 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1236 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1301 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.2 8B better than Qwen3 Coder Next?

Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 34.3 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 8B or Qwen3 Coder Next?

Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Coder Next lists at $0.12 and $0.80.

### Is Granite 4.2 8B or Qwen3 Coder Next better for coding?

Granite 4.2 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.5 versus 36.3 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3 Coder Next does, with 262K tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 8B and Qwen3 Coder Next share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 8B has 11 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Coder Next has 3.