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Claude 3 Sonnet vs Granite 3.3 8B Base

Claude 3 Sonnet and Granite 3.3 8B Base are closely matched at 2.0 and -0.3 on the LLM Stats Score.

Anthropic · IBM · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Claude 3 Sonnet and Granite 3.3 8B Base are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 2.0 and -0.3.

In the 7 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Claude 3 Sonnet wins 6; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Claude 3 Sonnet

  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 6 of 7 exact shared results

Choose Granite 3.3 8B Base

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2025
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Claude 3 Sonnet
Anthropic
Granite 3.3 8B Base
IBM
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
2.0
#302
-0.3
#312
Reasoning
1.9
#292
-0.4
#307
Coding
-1.4
#234
11.2
#147
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
6 of 7
1 of 7
Input price
$3.00 / M
— / M
Output price
$15.00 / M
— / M
Context window
200,000
—

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

3 shared
Index
Claude 3 Sonnet
Granite 3.3 8B Base
Math
7.7#254
-0.5#288
Finance
3.4#170
-6.8#206
Legal
3.4#159
-5.5#189
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

11 reported for Claude 3 Sonnet · 20 for Granite 3.3 8B Base

7 shared

Claude 3 Sonnet outperforms in 6 benchmarks (ARC-C, BIG-Bench Hard, DROP, GSM8k, HellaSwag, MMLU), while Granite 3.3 8B Base is better at 1 benchmark (HumanEval).

Claude 3 Sonnet significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Mon Aug 31 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Claude 3 Sonnet specifies input context (200,000 tokens). Only Claude 3 Sonnet specifies output context (200,000 tokens).

Anthropic
Claude 3 Sonnet
Input200,000 tokens
Output200,000 tokens
IBM
Granite 3.3 8B Base
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mon Aug 31 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both Claude 3 Sonnet and Granite 3.3 8B Base support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

Claude 3 Sonnet

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Granite 3.3 8B Base

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude 3 Sonnet is licensed under a proprietary license, while Granite 3.3 8B Base uses Apache 2.0.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Claude 3 Sonnet

Proprietary

Closed source

Granite 3.3 8B Base

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude 3 Sonnet was released on 2024-02-29, while Granite 3.3 8B Base was released on 2025-04-16.

Granite 3.3 8B Base is 14 months newer than Claude 3 Sonnet.

Claude 3 Sonnet

Feb 29, 2024

2.5 years ago

Granite 3.3 8B Base

Apr 16, 2025

1.4 years ago

1.1yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Granite 3.3 8B Base has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-04-01, while Claude 3 Sonnet's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Granite 3.3 8B Base's training data extends to 2024-04-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Claude 3 Sonnet's cutoff date.

Claude 3 Sonnet

—

Granite 3.3 8B Base

Apr 2024

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Claude 3 Sonnet and Granite 3.3 8B Base side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Claude 3 Sonnet
✓ Preferred
Granite 3.3 8B Base
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Claude 3 Sonnet vs Granite 3.3 8B Base.

Which is better, Claude 3 Sonnet or Granite 3.3 8B Base?

Claude 3 Sonnet and Granite 3.3 8B Base are closely matched on the LLM Stats Score at 2.0 and -0.3. Claude 3 Sonnet is made by Anthropic and Granite 3.3 8B Base is made by IBM. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Claude 3 Sonnet compare to Granite 3.3 8B Base in benchmarks?

Claude 3 Sonnet scores ARC-C: 93.2%, GSM8k: 92.3%, HellaSwag: 89.0%, MGSM: 83.5%, BIG-Bench Hard: 82.9%. Granite 3.3 8B Base scores HumanEval: 89.7%, AttaQ: 88.5%, HumanEval+: 86.1%, AIME 2024: 81.2%, HellaSwag: 80.1%.

What are the context window sizes for Claude 3 Sonnet and Granite 3.3 8B Base?

Claude 3 Sonnet supports 200K tokens and Granite 3.3 8B Base supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Claude 3 Sonnet and Granite 3.3 8B Base?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (2.0 vs -0.3), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude 3 Sonnet and Granite 3.3 8B Base?

Claude 3 Sonnet is developed by Anthropic and Granite 3.3 8B Base is developed by IBM.

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