Gemini 3.5 Flash (High) vs Granite 4.2 30B
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.5 Flash (High) by Google or Granite 4.2 30B by IBM? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 3.5 Flash (High) scores 19.9 points higher (32.6 vs 12.7) but costs 38× as much to run the benchmark ($4222 vs $111; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 3.5 Flash (High) when you need intelligence above 12.7, and Granite 4.2 30B when 12.7 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 3.5 Flash (High) | Granite 4.2 30B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 32.6 | 12.7 | −61.0% Granite 4.2 30B is 61.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $4,222.12 | $110.83 | −97.4% Granite 4.2 30B is 97.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 16.65s | 36.08s | +116.7% Granite 4.2 30B is 116.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.50 / $9.00 | $0.16 / $0.65 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text |
Granite 4.2 30B vs Gemini 3.5 Flash (High): 61.0% less intelligence, 97.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 116.7% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.5 Flash (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- Granite 4.2 30B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Flash scores 37.90 for $110.
Gemini 3.5 Flash (High)Granite 4.2 30BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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