Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs Granite 4.2 3B
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Granite 4.2 3B by IBM? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallb… scores 42.8 points higher (51.9 vs 9.1) but costs 146× as much to run the benchmark ($2177 vs $14.9; flagship vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallb… when you need intelligence above 9.1, and Granite 4.2 3B when 9.1 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | Granite 4.2 3B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 51.9 | 9.1 | −82.5% Granite 4.2 3B is 82.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,176.82 | $14.91 | −99.3% Granite 4.2 3B is 99.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 33.91s | 62.62s | +84.7% Granite 4.2 3B is 84.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.03 / $0.12 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Granite 4.2 3B vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback): 82.5% less intelligence, 99.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 84.7% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
- Granite 4.2 3B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)Granite 4.2 3BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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