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Claude 3 Sonnet vs Granite 3.3 8B Base

Claude 3 Sonnet significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Anthropic · IBM · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

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.

Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Claude 3 Sonnet

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 6 of 7 shared benchmarks

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
Benchmark wins
6 of 7
1 of 7
Input price
$3.00 / M
— / M
Output price
$15.00 / M
— / M
Context window
200,000
—
Released
Feb 2024
Apr 2025
License
Proprietary
Apache 2.0

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

7 benchmarks

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 24 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Playground indexes and blind 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 24 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

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 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. 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 benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities 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 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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