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Granite 4.2 8B vs Inkling

Inkling leads Granite 4.2 8B on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 25.0 to 11.1, and Granite 4.2 8B costs 20.2x less per output token ($0.20 vs $4.05 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 27 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Granite 4.2 8B Replace Inkling
Granite 4.2 8BIBM Granite
Coding
No data
Overall
No data
Output $/M
$0.20
0
T InklingThinking Machines
Coding
31.5
Overall
46.5
Output $/M
$4.05
27
vs boards won of 27 shared

Granite 4.2 8B or Inkling: which to pick

Only Inkling has a coding score, 31.5 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 20.2x cheaper ($0.20 vs $4.05 per million).

Model AGranite 4.2 8BIBM GraniteNot benchmarkedNo coding benchmarkNo cost per solved taskModel BInklingThinking Machines31.5/1006 independent benchmarks$0.76 per solved task
Shared results
27
Granite 4.2 8B only
0
Inkling only
75
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.

At a glance

Coding index
Granite 4.2 8B not benchmarked, Inkling 31.5 from 6 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 Inkling 77.3%, 32.3 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Granite 4.2 8B $0.20 against Inkling $4.05 per million output tokens, 20.2x apart.
Context window
Granite 4.2 8B takes 131K tokens, Inkling 524K.

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.

Boards won, where both have a result
CategoryGranite 4.2 8BBarsInklingTies
Coding04
Intelligence01
Agentic work01
Reasoning05
Knowledge04
General012
All shared boards027
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index04
Coding benchmarks for Granite 4.2 8B and Inkling
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 8BInklingLeader
LiveBench codingNot measured64.0%Only Inkling measured
LMArena WebDevNot measured1414Only Inkling measured
AA Coding Index22.452.1Inkling
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)Not measured85.5%Only Inkling measured
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)Not measured77.6%Only Inkling measured
Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI)Not measured0.5%Only Inkling measured
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)Not measured19.2%Only Inkling measured
Code migration (Vals AI)Not measured11.8%Only Inkling measured
ProgramBench (Vals AI)Not measured0.0%Only Inkling measured
IOI (Vals AI)Not measured14.9%Only Inkling measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)Not measured47.6%Only Inkling measured
Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI)Not measured7.3%Only Inkling measured
SkillsBench (Vals AI)Not measured26.1%Only Inkling measured
CyberBench (Vals AI)Not measured66.8%Only Inkling measured
SciCode31.5%47.0%Inkling
FrontierCodeNot measured14.0%Only Inkling measured
FrontierSWENot measured4.1%Only Inkling measured
WeirdMLNot measured32.3%Only Inkling measured
ALE-BenchNot measured946.0Only Inkling measured
LMArena Text: coding13781466Inkling
LMArena Text: software and IT13671465Inkling
LMArena WebDev: ReactNot measured1404Only Inkling measured
LMArena WebDev: HTMLNot measured1399Only Inkling measured
Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
Intelligence benchmarks for Granite 4.2 8B and Inkling
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 8BInklingLeader
AA Intelligence Index11.125.0Inkling
Epoch Capabilities IndexNot measured148.4Only Inkling measured
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
Agentic work benchmarks for Granite 4.2 8B and Inkling
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 8BInklingLeader
AA Agentic Index1.322.5Inkling
Design Arena: agents building web appsNot measured1196Only Inkling measured
LiveBench researchNot measured59.9%Only Inkling measured
LiveBench browserNot measured16.0%Only Inkling measured
LiveBench long agenticNot measured14.1%Only Inkling measured
SREBench (Vals AI)Not measured0.0%Only Inkling measured
Finance Agent (Vals AI)Not measured46.6%Only Inkling measured
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)Not measured15.3%Only Inkling measured
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)Not measured28.4%Only Inkling measured
Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI)Not measured3.8%Only Inkling measured
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)Not measured38.4%Only Inkling measured
APEX-AgentsNot measured33.8%Only Inkling measured
Neither model has a result on the other 29 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
Reasoning benchmarks for Granite 4.2 8B and Inkling
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 8BInklingLeader
GPQA DiamondNot measured87.1%Only Inkling measured
LiveBench reasoningNot measured78.3%Only Inkling measured
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)Not measured78.5%Only Inkling measured
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)63.1%87.2%Inkling
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)9.7%31.9%Inkling
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)Not measured88.3%Only Inkling measured
ARC-AGINot measured79.5%Only Inkling measured
ARC-AGI-2Not measured36.5%Only Inkling measured
SimpleBenchNot measured50.0%Only Inkling measured
Chess puzzlesNot measured21.0%Only Inkling measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts13271451Inkling
LMArena Text: expert13861466Inkling
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English13451448Inkling
Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
Math benchmarks for Granite 4.2 8B and Inkling
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 8BInklingLeader
OTIS Mock AIMENot measured88.9%Only Inkling measured
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3Not measured33.3%Only Inkling measured
FrontierMath, tier 4Not measured4.9%Only Inkling measured
ProofBenchNot measured0.0%Only Inkling measured
LMArena Text: mathNot measured1479Only Inkling measured
LMArena Text: mathematical workNot measured1460Only Inkling measured
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
Knowledge benchmarks for Granite 4.2 8B and Inkling
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 8BInklingLeader
MMLU ProNot measured86.3%Only Inkling measured
LegalBench (Vals AI)Not measured83.0%Only Inkling measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)Not measured68.6%Only Inkling measured
TaxEval (Vals AI)Not measured75.3%Only Inkling measured
MortgageTax (Vals AI)Not measured64.0%Only Inkling measured
MedCode (Vals AI)Not measured41.2%Only Inkling measured
SimpleQA VerifiedNot measured40.3%Only Inkling measured
LMArena Text: science13361455Inkling
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare13361447Inkling
LMArena Text: legal and government13271448Inkling
LMArena Text: business and finance13221438Inkling
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
Web design benchmarks for Granite 4.2 8B and Inkling
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 8BInklingLeader
Design Arena: websitesNot measured1224Only Inkling measured
Design Arena: UI componentsNot measured1198Only Inkling measured
Design Arena: game devNot measured1165Only Inkling measured
Design Arena: data vizNot measured1156Only Inkling measured
Design Arena: 3DNot measured1160Only Inkling measured
Design Arena: all code categoriesNot measured1205Only Inkling measured
Design Arena: SVGNot measured1108Only Inkling measured
Design Arena: ASCII artNot measured1089Only Inkling measured
LiveBench designNot measured58.3%Only Inkling measured
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index012
General benchmarks for Granite 4.2 8B and Inkling
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 8BInklingLeader
Vals IndexNot measured29.0%Only Inkling measured
LiveBench data analysisNot measured72.8%Only Inkling measured
Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI)Not measured58.5%Only Inkling measured
SAGE (Vals AI)Not measured36.5%Only Inkling measured
MedScribe (Vals AI)Not measured85.4%Only Inkling measured
Vals Multimodal IndexNot measured49.4%Only Inkling measured
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)45.0%77.3%Inkling
DTBenchNot measured87.5%Only Inkling measured
LMCANot measured37.6%Only Inkling measured
LMArena Text13191442Inkling
LMArena Text: instruction following13001425Inkling
LMArena Text: creative writing12361390Inkling
LMArena Text: English13371442Inkling
LMArena Text: non-English13011434Inkling
LMArena Text: Chinese13671493Inkling
LMArena Text: GermanNot measured1445Only Inkling measured
LMArena Text: JapaneseNot measured1429Only Inkling measured
LMArena Text: KoreanNot measured1403Only Inkling measured
LMArena Text: FrenchNot measured1455Only Inkling measured
LMArena Text: SpanishNot measured1449Only Inkling measured
LMArena Text: Russian12821430Inkling
LMArena Text: PolishNot measured1450Only Inkling measured
LMArena Text: multi-turn13011437Inkling
LMArena Text: longer queries13251435Inkling
LMArena Text: writing and language12691404Inkling
LMArena Text: entertainment and media12711394Inkling
Neither model has a result on the other 20 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for Granite 4.2 8B and Inkling
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 8BInklingLeader
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$0.0002Fits in one request
Inkling$0.0030Fits in one request

Granite 4.2 8B costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Granite 4.2 8B$0.0046Fits in one request
Inkling$0.061Fits in one request

Granite 4.2 8B costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Granite 4.2 8B$0.018Exceeds the context window
Inkling$0.235Fits in one request

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.

Specifications of Granite 4.2 8B and Inkling
SpecificationIBM Granite 4.2 8BThinking Machines Inkling
MakerIBM GraniteThinking Machines
WeightsOpen weightsOpen weights
ReleasedAugust 31, 2026July 17, 2026
Context window131K524K
Input $/Mtok$0.08$0.975
Output $/Mtok$0.20$4.05
Coding indexNot benchmarked31.5
Independent measurements behind it06
Cost per solved taskNot computable$0.76
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Granite 4.2 8B better than Inkling for coding?

Only Inkling has a coding score, 31.5 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 20.2x cheaper ($0.20 vs $4.05 per million).

Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 8B or Inkling?

Granite 4.2 8B costs $0.08 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens; Inkling costs $0.975 and $4.05. Cost per solved task is known for Inkling only.

Which has the bigger context window, Granite 4.2 8B or Inkling?

Inkling, with 524K tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks is the Granite 4.2 8B vs Inkling comparison based on?

27 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Granite 4.2 8B's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Inkling's on 6. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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