Granite 4.2 8B vs Beam 1.0
Which is better for the money: Granite 4.2 8B 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 19.2 points higher (30.3 vs 11.1) but costs 6.0× as much to run the benchmark ($319 vs $53.1; both mid-range class). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Beam 1.0 when you need intelligence above 11.1, and Granite 4.2 8B when 11.1 is enough.
| Metric | Granite 4.2 8B | Beam 1.0 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.1 | 30.3 | +173.0% Beam 1.0 is 2.7× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $53.07 | $318.73 | +500.6% Beam 1.0 is 6.0× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 39.25s | 8.02s | −79.6% Beam 1.0 is 79.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.06 / $0.25 | $0.40 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Beam 1.0 vs Granite 4.2 8B: 173.0% more intelligence, 500.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 79.6% 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.
- 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 8BBeam 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-4-2-8b/reflection-beam · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-8b/reflection-beam?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill