Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) vs Granite 4.2 3B
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) by Google or Granite 4.2 3B 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 3.8 Flash (Medium) scores 30.7 points higher (39.8 vs 9.1) but costs 74× as much to run the benchmark ($1100 vs $14.9; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) when you need intelligence above 9.1, and Granite 4.2 3B when 9.1 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) | Granite 4.2 3B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.8 | 9.1 | −77.1% Granite 4.2 3B is 77.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,100.06 | $14.91 | −98.6% Granite 4.2 3B is 98.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | Not reported | 49.98s | — not comparable |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.75 / $3.75 | $0.03 / $0.12 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text |
Granite 4.2 3B vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium): 77.1% less intelligence, 98.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and end-to-end time not fully reported.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Granite 4.2 3B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium)Granite 4.2 3BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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