Granite 4.2 3B vs Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Granite 4.2 3B by IBM or Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) by SpaceXAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) scores 4.9 points higher (14.0 vs 9.1) but costs 17× as much to run the benchmark ($250 vs $14.9; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) when you need intelligence above 9.1, and Granite 4.2 3B when 9.1 is enough.
| Metric | Granite 4.2 3B | Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 9.1 | 14.0 | +53.8% Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoni… is 53.8% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $14.91 | $250.37 | +1579.2% Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoni… is 17× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 59.94s | 5.86s | −90.2% Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoni… is 90.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.03 / $0.12 | $1.25 / $2.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) vs Granite 4.2 3B: 53.8% more intelligence, 1579.2% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 90.2% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Granite 4.2 3B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Granite 4.2 3BGrok 4.3 (Non-reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-3b/grok-4-3-non-reasoning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-3b/grok-4-3-non-reasoning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill