Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) vs Granite 4.2 8B
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) by Google or Granite 4.2 8B 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 3.6 Flash (High) scores 22.9 points higher (34.0 vs 11.1) but costs 30× as much to run the benchmark ($1614 vs $53.1; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) when you need intelligence above 11.1, and Granite 4.2 8B when 11.1 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) | Granite 4.2 8B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 34.0 | 11.1 | −67.4% Granite 4.2 8B is 67.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,614.42 | $53.07 | −96.7% Granite 4.2 8B is 96.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 17.79s | 39.25s | +120.6% Granite 4.2 8B is 120.6% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.75 / $3.75 | $0.06 / $0.25 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text |
Granite 4.2 8B vs Gemini 3.6 Flash (High): 67.4% less intelligence, 96.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 120.6% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Granite 4.2 8B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (High) scores 32.90 for $47.9.
Gemini 3.6 Flash (High)Granite 4.2 8BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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