Granite 4.2 3B vs Grok 4.6 (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Granite 4.2 3B by IBM or Grok 4.6 (Medium) 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 4.6 (Medium) scores 33.7 points higher (42.8 vs 9.1) but costs 104× as much to run the benchmark ($1557 vs $14.9; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Grok 4.6 (Medium) when you need intelligence above 9.1, and Granite 4.2 3B when 9.1 is enough.
| Metric | Granite 4.2 3B | Grok 4.6 (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 9.1 | 42.8 | +370.3% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 4.7× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $14.91 | $1,557.04 | +10342.9% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 104× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 49.98s | 33.09s | −33.8% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 33.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.03 / $0.12 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Grok 4.6 (Medium) vs Granite 4.2 3B: 370.3% more intelligence, 10342.9% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 33.8% 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 4.6 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Granite 4.2 3BGrok 4.6 (Medium)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-4-6-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-3b/grok-4-6-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill