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Claude 3 Sonnet vs Granite 3.3 8B Instruct

Claude 3 Sonnet and Granite 3.3 8B Instruct are closely matched at 2.4 and 3.0 on the LLM Stats Score. Granite 3.3 8B Instruct is 12.0x cheaper per token.

Anthropic · IBM · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Claude 3 Sonnet and Granite 3.3 8B Instruct are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 2.4 and 3.0.

In the 5 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Claude 3 Sonnet wins 4; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, Granite 3.3 8B Instruct is roughly 12.0x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Claude 3 Sonnet also accepts a larger context window (200,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

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 4 of 5 exact shared results
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 200,000 token context window

Choose Granite 3.3 8B Instruct

  • cost matters — it's about 12.0x cheaper per token
  • 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 Instruct
IBM
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
2.4
#297
3.0
#292
Reasoning
2.3
#287
3.4
#282
Coding
-1.4
#230
11.3
#143
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
4 of 5
1 of 5
Input price
$3.00 / M
$0.50 / M
Output price
$15.00 / M
$0.50 / M
Context window
200,000
128,000

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

3 shared
Index
Claude 3 Sonnet
Granite 3.3 8B Instruct
Math
7.8#249
3.1#273
Finance
3.6#166
1.9#171
Legal
3.6#155
1.9#160
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

11 reported for Claude 3 Sonnet · 14 for Granite 3.3 8B Instruct

5 shared

Claude 3 Sonnet outperforms in 4 benchmarks (BIG-Bench Hard, DROP, GSM8k, MMLU), while Granite 3.3 8B Instruct is better at 1 benchmark (HumanEval).

Claude 3 Sonnet significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sat Aug 29 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct costs less

For input processing, Claude 3 Sonnet ($3.00/1M tokens) is 6.0x more expensive than Granite 3.3 8B Instruct ($0.50/1M tokens).

For output processing, Claude 3 Sonnet ($15.00/1M tokens) is 30.0x more expensive than Granite 3.3 8B Instruct ($0.50/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Claude 3 Sonnet is more expensive than Granite 3.3 8B Instruct.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Sat Aug 29 2026 • llm-stats.com
Anthropic
Claude 3 Sonnet
Input tokens$3.00
Output tokens$15.00
Best providerAnthropic
IBM
Granite 3.3 8B Instruct
Input tokens$0.50
Output tokens$0.50
Best providerReplicate
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Claude 3 Sonnet accepts 200,000 input tokens compared to Granite 3.3 8B Instruct's 128,000 tokens. Claude 3 Sonnet can generate longer responses up to 200,000 tokens, while Granite 3.3 8B Instruct is limited to 8,192 tokens.

Anthropic
Claude 3 Sonnet
Input200,000 tokens
Output200,000 tokens
IBM
Granite 3.3 8B Instruct
Input128,000 tokens
Output8,192 tokens
Sat Aug 29 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both Claude 3 Sonnet and Granite 3.3 8B Instruct 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 Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude 3 Sonnet is licensed under a proprietary license, while Granite 3.3 8B Instruct 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 Instruct

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 Instruct was released on 2025-04-16.

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

Claude 3 Sonnet

Feb 29, 2024

2.5 years ago

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct

Apr 16, 2025

1.4 years ago

1.1yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct 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 Instruct'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 Instruct

Apr 2024

Provider Availability

Claude 3 Sonnet is available from Anthropic, Bedrock, Google. Granite 3.3 8B Instruct is available from Replicate.

Claude 3 Sonnet

anthropic logo
Anthropic
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M
bedrock logo
AWS Bedrock
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M
google logo
Google
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct

replicate logo
Replicate
Input Price:Input: $0.50/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.50/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

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 Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

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

FAQ

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

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

Claude 3 Sonnet and Granite 3.3 8B Instruct are closely matched on the LLM Stats Score at 2.4 and 3.0. Claude 3 Sonnet is made by Anthropic and Granite 3.3 8B Instruct 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 Instruct 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 Instruct scores HumanEval: 89.7%, AttaQ: 88.5%, HumanEval+: 86.1%, AIME 2024: 81.2%, GSM8k: 80.9%.

Is Claude 3 Sonnet cheaper than Granite 3.3 8B Instruct?

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct is 6.0x cheaper for input tokens. Claude 3 Sonnet costs $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output via anthropic. Granite 3.3 8B Instruct costs $0.50/M input and $0.50/M output via replicate.

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

Claude 3 Sonnet supports 200K tokens and Granite 3.3 8B Instruct supports 128K 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 Instruct?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (2.4 vs 3.0), context window (200K vs 128K), input pricing ($3.00 vs $0.50/M), 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 Instruct?

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

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