DeepSeek V3.2 Exp vs Granite 4.2 8B
DeepSeek V3.2 Exp leads Granite 4.2 8B on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 16.6 to 11.1, and Granite 4.2 8B costs 2.0x less per output token ($0.20 vs $0.41 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 24 benchmarks have a result for both.
DeepSeek V3.2 Exp or Granite 4.2 8B: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick DeepSeek V3.2 Exp for a larger context window (164K against 131K tokens).
- Shared results
- 24
- DeepSeek V3.2 Exp only
- 36
- Granite 4.2 8B only
- 3
- Like-for-like categories
- 5 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
DeepSeek V3.2 Exp
DeepSeek V3.2 Exp leads, 16.6 against 11.1.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Granite 4.2 8B has a AA Agentic Index result, 1.3.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp has a Design Arena: websites result, 1179.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
DeepSeek V3.2 Exp
DeepSeek V3.2 Exp takes 164K tokens against 131K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Granite 4.2 8B
DeepSeek V3.2 Exp $0.0005, Granite 4.2 8B $0.0002 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- DeepSeek V3.2 Exp not benchmarked, Granite 4.2 8B not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- General, 20.2 points apart on average over 12 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- LMArena Text: creative writing: DeepSeek V3.2 Exp 1404 against Granite 4.2 8B 1236, 28.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- DeepSeek V3.2 Exp $0.41 against Granite 4.2 8B $0.20 per million output tokens, 2.0x apart.
- Context window
- DeepSeek V3.2 Exp takes 164K 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 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | Bars | Granite 4.2 8B | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 5 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 4 | 0 | ||
| General | 12 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 24 | 0 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index20
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | Granite 4.2 8B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aider polyglot | 74.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1272 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 22.4 | Only Granite 4.2 8B measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 78.9% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 31.5% | Only Granite 4.2 8B measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 31.1% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| WeirdML | 39.5% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1438 | 1378 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1438 | 1367 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1281 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 33 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | Granite 4.2 8B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 16.6 | 11.1 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 144.9 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | Granite 4.2 8B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 1.3 | Only Granite 4.2 8B measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 33.9% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| TheAgentCompany | 42.9% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) | 56.7% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 38 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index50
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | Granite 4.2 8B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 79.7% | 63.1% | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 14.9% | 9.7% | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1429 | 1327 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1422 | 1386 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1444 | 1345 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 52.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | Granite 4.2 8B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | 87.7 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 87.7% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1422 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1433 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| MathArena | 14.4% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | Granite 4.2 8B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 85.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1443 | 1336 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1468 | 1336 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1419 | 1327 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1412 | 1322 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | Granite 4.2 8B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1179 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1164 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1143 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1152 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1148 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1170 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1031 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index120
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | Granite 4.2 8B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 54.1% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 72.3% | 45.0% | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| DTBench | 87.7% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| LMCA | 29.1% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 83.3% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| CL-bench | 13.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| CL-bench Life | 9.5% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| LMArena Text | 1425 | 1319 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1401 | 1300 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1404 | 1236 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| LMArena Text: English | 1441 | 1337 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1404 | 1301 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1461 | 1367 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| LMArena Text: German | 1440 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1331 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1372 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1434 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1441 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1412 | 1282 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1435 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 Exp measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1422 | 1301 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1418 | 1325 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1407 | 1269 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1407 | 1271 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp |
| 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 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | 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 | DeepSeek V3.2 Exp | IBM Granite 4.2 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | DeepSeek | IBM Granite |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | September 29, 2025 | August 31, 2026 |
| Context window | 164K | 131K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.27 | $0.08 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.41 | $0.20 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is DeepSeek V3.2 Exp better than Granite 4.2 8B for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick DeepSeek V3.2 Exp for a larger context window (164K against 131K tokens).
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V3.2 Exp or Granite 4.2 8B?
DeepSeek V3.2 Exp costs $0.27 per million input tokens and $0.41 per million output tokens; Granite 4.2 8B costs $0.08 and $0.20. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, DeepSeek V3.2 Exp or Granite 4.2 8B?
DeepSeek V3.2 Exp, with 164K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks is the DeepSeek V3.2 Exp vs Granite 4.2 8B comparison based on?
24 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. DeepSeek V3.2 Exp'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.