Command A vs Granite 4.2 8B
Command A leads Granite 4.2 8B on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 13.1 to 11.1, and Granite 4.2 8B costs 50.0x less per output token ($0.20 vs $10.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 27 benchmarks have a result for both.
Command A or Granite 4.2 8B: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Command A for a larger context window (256K against 131K tokens) and work measured by LMArena Text: coding or LMArena Text: software and IT, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 27
- Command A only
- 35
- Granite 4.2 8B only
- 0
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Command A
Command A leads, 13.1 against 11.1.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Granite 4.2 8B
Granite 4.2 8B leads, 1.3 against 1.0.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Command A has a GPQA Diamond result, 48.5%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only Command A has a AIME result, 13.3%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Command A has a MMLU Pro result, 69.2%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Command A
Command A takes 256K tokens against 131K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Granite 4.2 8B
Command A $0.0075, Granite 4.2 8B $0.0002 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Command A has the number, $2.69.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Command A not benchmarked, Granite 4.2 8B not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Reasoning, 6.4 points apart on average over 5 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- LMArena Text: expert: Command A 1296 against Granite 4.2 8B 1386, 15.1 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Command A $10.00 against Granite 4.2 8B $0.20 per million output tokens, 50.0x apart.
- Context window
- Command A takes 256K tokens, Granite 4.2 8B 131K.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Command A | Bars | Granite 4.2 8B | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 2 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 3 | ||
| Knowledge | 2 | 2 | ||
| General | 11 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 18 | 9 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index22
| Benchmark | Command A | Granite 4.2 8B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Coding Index | 27.8 | 22.4 | Command A |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 35.1% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 7.8% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 17.6% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 28.7% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| SciCode | 38.5% | 31.5% | Command A |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 25.0% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1330 | 1378 | Granite 4.2 8B |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1336 | 1367 | Granite 4.2 8B |
| Neither model has a result on the other 30 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Command A | Granite 4.2 8B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 13.1 | 11.1 | Command A |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Command A | Granite 4.2 8B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 1.0 | 1.3 | Granite 4.2 8B |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 9.0% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 80.7% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) | 46.5% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 37 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index23
| Benchmark | Command A | Granite 4.2 8B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 48.5% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 76.1% | 63.1% | Command A |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 12.0% | 9.7% | Command A |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1326 | 1327 | Granite 4.2 8B |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1296 | 1386 | Granite 4.2 8B |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1335 | 1345 | Granite 4.2 8B |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 28.8% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Command A | Granite 4.2 8B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 13.3% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | 76.2% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 85.7% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| AA Math Index | 13.0 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 13.0% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1300 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1312 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index22
| Benchmark | Command A | Granite 4.2 8B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 69.2% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 79.7% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 64.5% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 46.0% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 61.4% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 80.5% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 19.7% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 71.2% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1339 | 1336 | Command A |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1334 | 1336 | Granite 4.2 8B |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1348 | 1327 | Command A |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1315 | 1322 | Granite 4.2 8B |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
Web designNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Command A | Granite 4.2 8B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 9 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index111
| Benchmark | Command A | Granite 4.2 8B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 55.7% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| IFBench | 73.9% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 52.7% | 45.0% | Command A |
| DTBench | 61.3% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMCA | 10.3% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text | 1331 | 1319 | Command A |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1309 | 1300 | Command A |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1319 | 1236 | Command A |
| LMArena Text: English | 1344 | 1337 | Command A |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1313 | 1301 | Command A |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1327 | 1367 | Granite 4.2 8B |
| LMArena Text: German | 1342 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1285 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1285 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1351 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1347 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1314 | 1282 | Command A |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1324 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1338 | 1301 | Command A |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1334 | 1325 | Command A |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1328 | 1269 | Command A |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1306 | 1271 | Command A |
| Neither model has a result on the other 24 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Command A | Granite 4.2 8B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Granite 4.2 8B costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Granite 4.2 8B costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Granite 4.2 8B costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | Cohere Command A | IBM Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Cohere | IBM Granite |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | March 13, 2025 | August 31, 2026 |
| Context window | 256K | 131K |
| Input $/Mtok | $2.50 | $0.08 |
| Output $/Mtok | $10.00 | $0.20 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | $2.69 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Command A better than Granite 4.2 8B for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Command A for a larger context window (256K against 131K tokens) and work measured by LMArena Text: coding or LMArena Text: software and IT, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Command A or Granite 4.2 8B?
Command A costs $2.50 per million input tokens and $10.00 per million output tokens; Granite 4.2 8B costs $0.08 and $0.20. Cost per solved task is known for Command A only.
Which has the bigger context window, Command A or Granite 4.2 8B?
Command A, with 256K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks is the Command A vs Granite 4.2 8B comparison based on?
27 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Command A's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and Granite 4.2 8B's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.