# Granite 4.2 8B vs Sonar

> Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 37.8 on the Noometry Index.

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

## Summary

- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Granite 4.2 8B leads 25.5 to 20.3.
- Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $1 for Sonar.
- Granite 4.2 8B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 128K.
- Granite 4.2 8B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.2 8B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Perplexity |
| Noometry Index | 40.0 | 37.8 |
| Rank | 143 | 184 |
| Context | 131K | 128K |
| Input $/M | $0.06 | $1 |
| Output $/M | $0.25 | $1 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Granite 4.2 8B: 39.9 (#138)
- Sonar: 35.1 (#217)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Coding | — | 35.1% |
| LMArena Coding | 1379 | — |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.2 8B: 25.5 (#130)
- Sonar: 20.3 (#221)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 46.3% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1327 | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 37.9% |
| LiveBench | — | 46.9% |

## Math

- Granite 4.2 8B: —
- Sonar: 31.3 (#197)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Math | — | 41.6% |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.2 8B: 37.7 (#144)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1380 | — |

## Multilingual

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

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

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#183)
- Sonar: 71.5 (#146)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 76.2% |
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1298 | — |

## Long Context

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

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

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.2 8B: 49.8 (#183)
- Sonar: 52.6 (#166)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1319 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1238 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1299 | — |
| LiveBench Language | — | 44.1% |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.2 8B better than Sonar?

Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 37.8 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 8B or Sonar?

Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; Sonar lists at $1 and $1.

### Is Granite 4.2 8B or Sonar better for coding?

Granite 4.2 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.9 versus 35.1 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 Sonar share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 8B has 11 scored results on Noometry and Sonar has 7.