Granite 4.2 3B vs Grok 4.5 (High)
Which is better for the money: Granite 4.2 3B by IBM or Grok 4.5 (High) by SpaceXAI? 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
Grok 4.5 (High) scores 29.7 points higher (38.8 vs 9.1) but costs 83× as much to run the benchmark ($1244 vs $14.9; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Grok 4.5 (High) when you need intelligence above 9.1, and Granite 4.2 3B when 9.1 is enough.
| Metric | Granite 4.2 3B | Grok 4.5 (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 9.1 | 38.8 | +326.4% Grok 4.5 (High) is 4.3× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $14.91 | $1,243.85 | +8242.4% Grok 4.5 (High) is 83× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 49.98s | 19.45s | −61.1% Grok 4.5 (High) is 61.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.03 / $0.12 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Grok 4.5 (High) vs Granite 4.2 3B: 326.4% more intelligence, 8242.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 61.1% 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 4.5 (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Granite 4.2 3BGrok 4.5 (High)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-4-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-3b/grok-4-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill