Granite 4.2 3B vs Beam 1.0
Which is better for the money: Granite 4.2 3B by IBM or Beam 1.0 by Reflection? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Beam 1.0 scores 21.2 points higher (30.3 vs 9.1) but costs 21× as much to run the benchmark ($319 vs $14.9; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Beam 1.0 when you need intelligence above 9.1, and Granite 4.2 3B when 9.1 is enough.
| Metric | Granite 4.2 3B | Beam 1.0 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 9.1 | 30.3 | +233.0% Beam 1.0 is 3.3× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $14.91 | $318.73 | +2037.7% Beam 1.0 is 21× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 35.30s | 8.02s | −77.3% Beam 1.0 is 77.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.03 / $0.12 | $0.40 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Beam 1.0 vs Granite 4.2 3B: 233.0% more intelligence, 2037.7% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 77.3% 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.
- Beam 1.0 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Granite 4.2 3BBeam 1.0Today'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/reflection-beam · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-3b/reflection-beam?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill