# Granite 4.2 8B vs Solar Pro4

> Solar Pro4 is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.1 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.2 8B costs 4.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Solar Pro4's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-4-2-8b-vs-solar-pro4
- 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 1 category and Solar Pro4 in 6 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Solar Pro4 leads 56.5 to 49.6.
- Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for Solar Pro4.
- Solar Pro4 accepts more context: 524K tokens versus 131K.
- Granite 4.2 8B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.2 8B | Solar Pro4 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Upstage |
| Noometry Index | 40.5 | 42.1 |
| Rank | 148 | 121 |
| Context | 131K | 524K |
| Input $/M | $0.06 | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | $0.25 | $1.20 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)
- Solar Pro4: 40.1 (#149)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Solar Pro4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1380 | 1437 |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1371 |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)
- Solar Pro4: 28.5 (#104)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Solar Pro4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1329 | 1399 |

## Math

- Granite 4.2 8B: —
- Solar Pro4: 38.8 (#128)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Solar Pro4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | — | 1416 |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145)
- Solar Pro4: 39.8 (#129)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Solar Pro4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1384 | 1427 |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)
- Solar Pro4: 48.7 (#139)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Solar Pro4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1302 | 1361 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1366 | 1415 |
| LMArena Russian | 1285 | 1360 |
| LMArena French | — | 1397 |
| LMArena German | — | 1364 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1309 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1382 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1401 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)
- Solar Pro4: 72.7 (#132)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Solar Pro4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1301 | 1377 |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)
- Solar Pro4: 42.1 (#130)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Solar Pro4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1324 | 1381 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)
- Solar Pro4: 56.5 (#138)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Solar Pro4 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1320 | 1386 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1236 | 1316 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1301 | 1385 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.2 8B better than Solar Pro4?

Solar Pro4 is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.1 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.2 8B costs 4.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Solar Pro4's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 8B or Solar Pro4?

Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; Solar Pro4 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.

### Is Granite 4.2 8B or Solar Pro4 better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (40.5 vs 40.1); test both on your own repository before choosing.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Solar Pro4 does, with 524K tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 8B and Solar Pro4 share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 8B has 11 scored results on Noometry and Solar Pro4 has 18.