Granite 4.2 8B vs Nemotron 3 Ultra
Nemotron 3 Ultra leads Granite 4.2 8B on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 22.9 to 11.1, and Granite 4.2 8B costs 12.0x less per output token ($0.20 vs $2.40 per million). Updated October 23, 2026; 27 benchmarks have a result for both.
Granite 4.2 8B or Nemotron 3 Ultra: which to pick
Only Nemotron 3 Ultra has a coding score, 30.0 on the Vibe Coding Index; Granite 4.2 8B has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Granite 4.2 8B for output tokens 12.0x cheaper ($0.20 vs $2.40 per million).
- Shared results
- 27
- Granite 4.2 8B only
- 0
- Nemotron 3 Ultra only
- 44
- 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
Only Nemotron 3 Ultra has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Nemotron 3 Ultra
Nemotron 3 Ultra leads, 22.9 against 11.1.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Nemotron 3 Ultra
Nemotron 3 Ultra leads, 20.1 against 1.3.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Nemotron 3 Ultra has a GPQA Diamond result, 86.1%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Nemotron 3 Ultra has a MMLU Pro result, 85.8%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Nemotron 3 Ultra has a Design Arena: websites result, 1145.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Nemotron 3 Ultra
Nemotron 3 Ultra takes 262K tokens against 131K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Granite 4.2 8B
Granite 4.2 8B $0.0002, Nemotron 3 Ultra $0.0018 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Granite 4.2 8B not benchmarked, Nemotron 3 Ultra 30.0 from 3 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- General, 22.4 points apart on average over 12 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Long context reasoning (AA-LCR): Granite 4.2 8B 45.0% against Nemotron 3 Ultra 79.3%, 34.3 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Granite 4.2 8B $0.20 against Nemotron 3 Ultra $2.40 per million output tokens, 12.0x apart.
- Context window
- Granite 4.2 8B takes 131K tokens, Nemotron 3 Ultra 262K.
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 | Granite 4.2 8B | Bars | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 4 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 5 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 4 | ||
| General | 0 | 12 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 27 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index04
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Coding Index | 22.4 | 49.3 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 86.0% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 69.0% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 7.6% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 4.9% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 50.9% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| SciCode | 31.5% | 40.3% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 36.4% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| FrontierCode | Not measured | 13.6% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 43.5% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1378 | 1467 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1366 | 1468 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| Neither model has a result on the other 30 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 11.1 | 22.9 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 146.0 | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 1.3 | 20.1 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 37.7% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 15.4% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 31.7% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 83.3% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 22.7% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| MCP Atlas | Not measured | 63.1% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 35 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 86.1% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 63.1% | 86.7% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 9.7% | 28.4% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 85.4% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 20.0% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1327 | 1452 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1386 | 1472 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1344 | 1453 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 86.7% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 2.0% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1457 | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1462 | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 85.8% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 82.1% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 65.5% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 73.1% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 38.6% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1335 | 1465 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1332 | 1455 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1327 | 1453 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1322 | 1435 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 1145 | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1135 | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 1138 | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1142 | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | Not measured | 1132 | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 1146 | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | Not measured | 1069 | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | Not measured | 1100 | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index012
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | Not measured | 81.4% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 45.0% | 79.3% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| DTBench | Not measured | 90.1% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 36.9% | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text | 1319 | 1445 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1301 | 1418 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1235 | 1398 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: English | 1337 | 1454 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1300 | 1427 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1365 | 1498 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1474 | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1385 | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1473 | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1454 | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1280 | 1417 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1385 | Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1300 | 1411 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1324 | 1437 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1269 | 1405 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1271 | 1397 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| Neither model has a result on the other 28 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra | 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 | IBM Granite 4.2 8B | NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | IBM Granite | NVIDIA |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | August 31, 2026 | June 4, 2026 |
| Context window | 131K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.08 | $0.60 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.20 | $2.40 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | 30.0 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 3 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Granite 4.2 8B better than Nemotron 3 Ultra for coding?
Only Nemotron 3 Ultra has a coding score, 30.0 on the Vibe Coding Index; Granite 4.2 8B has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Granite 4.2 8B for output tokens 12.0x cheaper ($0.20 vs $2.40 per million).
Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 8B or Nemotron 3 Ultra?
Granite 4.2 8B costs $0.08 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens; Nemotron 3 Ultra costs $0.60 and $2.40. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Granite 4.2 8B or Nemotron 3 Ultra?
Nemotron 3 Ultra, with 262K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks is the Granite 4.2 8B vs Nemotron 3 Ultra comparison based on?
27 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 23, 2026. Granite 4.2 8B's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Nemotron 3 Ultra's on 3. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.