Granite 4.2 8B vs Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Granite 4.2 8B by IBM or Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) scores 1.6 points higher (12.7 vs 11.1) but costs 4.4× as much to run the benchmark ($234 vs $53.1; both mid-range class). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) when you need intelligence above 11.1, and Granite 4.2 8B when 11.1 is enough.
| Metric | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.1 | 12.7 | +14.4% Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 … is 14.4% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $53.07 | $233.56 | +340.1% Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 … is 4.4× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 63.84s | 22.73s | −64.4% Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 … is 64.4% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.06 / $0.25 | $0.23 / $2.30 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) vs Granite 4.2 8B: 14.4% more intelligence, 340.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 64.4% 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.
- Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Granite 4.2 8BQwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning)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/qwen3-235b-a22b-instruct-2507-reasoning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-8b/qwen3-235b-a22b-instruct-2507-reasoning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill