Granite 4.2 8B vs Grok 4.6 (Low)
Which is better for the money: Granite 4.2 8B by IBM or Grok 4.6 (Low) by SpaceXAI? 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
Grok 4.6 (Low) scores 24.0 points higher (35.1 vs 11.1) but costs 12× as much to run the benchmark ($614 vs $53.1; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Grok 4.6 (Low) when you need intelligence above 11.1, and Granite 4.2 8B when 11.1 is enough.
| Metric | Granite 4.2 8B | Grok 4.6 (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.1 | 35.1 | +216.2% Grok 4.6 (Low) is 3.2× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $53.07 | $613.92 | +1056.8% Grok 4.6 (Low) is 12× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 39.25s | 13.36s | −66.0% Grok 4.6 (Low) is 66.0% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.06 / $0.25 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Grok 4.6 (Low) vs Granite 4.2 8B: 216.2% more intelligence, 1056.8% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 66.0% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Granite 4.2 8B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (High) scores 32.90 for $47.9.
- Grok 4.6 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
Granite 4.2 8BGrok 4.6 (Low)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-4-2-8b/grok-4-6-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-8b/grok-4-6-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill