# Granite 4.2 8B vs Yi-Lightning

> Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 37.1 on the Noometry Index.

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

## Summary

- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 8B scores higher in 6 categories and Yi-Lightning in 1 category; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in coding, where Granite 4.2 8B leads 40.5 to 27.4.
- Granite 4.2 8B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.2 8B | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | 01.AI |
| Noometry Index | 40.5 | 37.1 |
| Rank | 148 | 209 |
| Context | 131K | — |
| Input $/M | $0.06 | — |
| Output $/M | $0.25 | — |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)
- Yi-Lightning: 27.4 (#320)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1380 | 1312 |
| Aider Polyglot | — | 12.9% |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)
- Yi-Lightning: 25.9 (#139)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1329 | 1302 |

## Math

- Granite 4.2 8B: —
- Yi-Lightning: 36.2 (#172)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | — | 1300 |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145)
- Yi-Lightning: 35.4 (#185)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1384 | 1286 |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)
- Yi-Lightning: 42.2 (#196)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1302 | 1269 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1366 | 1320 |
| LMArena Russian | 1285 | 1255 |
| LMArena French | — | 1305 |
| LMArena German | — | 1267 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1228 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1192 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1315 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)
- Yi-Lightning: 67.4 (#196)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1301 | 1278 |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)
- Yi-Lightning: 39.4 (#181)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1324 | 1297 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)
- Yi-Lightning: 50.2 (#184)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1320 | 1302 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1236 | 1280 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1301 | 1311 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.2 8B better than Yi-Lightning?

Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 37.1 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Granite 4.2 8B or Yi-Lightning better for coding?

Granite 4.2 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.5 versus 27.4 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 8B and Yi-Lightning share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 8B has 11 scored results on Noometry and Yi-Lightning has 18.