Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs Granite 4.2 30B
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite by Google or Granite 4.2 30B by IBM? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite scores 2.9 points higher (15.6 vs 12.7) but costs 1.4× as much to run the benchmark ($156 vs $111; both mid-range class). Pick Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Granite 4.2 30B.
| Metric | Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | Granite 4.2 30B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 15.6 | 12.7 | −18.6% Granite 4.2 30B is 18.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $155.87 | $110.83 | −28.9% Granite 4.2 30B is 28.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.09s | 54.96s | +802.5% Granite 4.2 30B is 802.5% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $1.50 | $0.16 / $0.65 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text |
Granite 4.2 30B vs Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: 18.6% less intelligence, 28.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 802.5% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Max) scores 38.10 for $122.
- Granite 4.2 30B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Flash scores 37.90 for $110.
Gemini 3.1 Flash-LiteGranite 4.2 30BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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