Granite 4.2 8B vs Mistral Medium 3.5
Which is better for the money: Granite 4.2 8B by IBM or Mistral Medium 3.5 by Mistral? 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
Mistral Medium 3.5 scores 3.1 points higher (14.2 vs 11.1) but costs 24× as much to run the benchmark ($1264 vs $53.1; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Mistral Medium 3.5 when you need intelligence above 11.1, and Granite 4.2 8B when 11.1 is enough.
| Metric | Granite 4.2 8B | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.1 | 14.2 | +27.9% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 27.9% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $53.07 | $1,263.80 | +2281.4% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 24× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 46.99s | 17.77s | −62.2% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 62.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.06 / $0.25 | $1.50 / $7.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Granite 4.2 8B: 27.9% more intelligence, 2281.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 62.2% 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.
- Mistral Medium 3.5 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Granite 4.2 8BMistral Medium 3.5Today'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/mistral-medium-3-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-8b/mistral-medium-3-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill