GPT-6 Astra (Xhigh) vs Granite 4.2 8B

Which is better for the money: GPT-6 Astra (Xhigh) by OpenAI or Granite 4.2 8B by IBM? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.

Trade-off

OpenAIGPT-6 Astra (Xhigh)Off the frontier

Intelligence: 52.40
Total cost: $3803

IBMGranite 4.2 8BOff the frontier

Intelligence: 11.10
Total cost: $53.1

Verdict

Depends on your budget

GPT-6 Astra (Xhigh) scores 41.3 points higher (52.4 vs 11.1) but costs 72× as much to run the benchmark ($3803 vs $53.1; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-6 Astra (Xhigh) when you need intelligence above 11.1, and Granite 4.2 8B when 11.1 is enough.

Metric	GPT-6 Astra (Xhigh)	Granite 4.2 8B	Difference
Intelligence (higher is better)	52.4	11.1	−78.8% Granite 4.2 8B is 78.8% less intelligent
Total AA cost (lower is better)	$3,802.98	$53.07	−98.6% Granite 4.2 8B is 98.6% cheaper
End-to-end time (lower is better)	176.59s	63.67s	−63.9% Granite 4.2 8B is 63.9% faster
Price per 1M tokens (in / out)	$10.0 / $50.0	$0.06 / $0.25
Input modalities	Text, Image	Text

Granite 4.2 8B vs GPT-6 Astra (Xhigh): 78.8% less intelligence, 98.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 63.9% faster end-to-end.

Open this matchup in the interactive picker GPT-6 Astra (Xhigh): what beats it Granite 4.2 8B: what beats it

Today's Pareto frontier

Against the frontier

GPT-6 Astra (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
Granite 4.2 8B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (High) scores 32.90 for $47.9.

GPT-6 Astra (Xhigh)Granite 4.2 8BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model

Matchup

Compare something else

Agents: Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gpt-6-astra-xhigh/granite-4-2-8b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-6-astra-xhigh/granite-4-2-8b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill