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Claude Opus 5.5 vs Granite 3.3 8B Instruct

Claude Opus 5.5 leads the LLM Stats Score 59.8 to 2.4. Granite 3.3 8B Instruct is 16.0x cheaper per token.

Anthropic · IBM · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Claude Opus 5.5 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 59.8 to 2.4, ranking #1 overall.

On price, Granite 3.3 8B Instruct is roughly 16.0x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Claude Opus 5.5 also accepts a larger context window (1,000,000 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 Opus 5.5

  • overall performance matters — it scores 59.8 and ranks #1 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 1,000,000 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2026

Choose Granite 3.3 8B Instruct

  • cost matters — it's about 16.0x cheaper per token
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Claude Opus 5.5
Anthropic
Granite 3.3 8B Instruct
IBM
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
59.8
#1
2.4
#319
Reasoning
57.9
#1
2.8
#308
Coding
51.8
#1
11.2
#163
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
$4.00 / M
$0.50 / M
Output price
$20.00 / M
$0.50 / M
Context window
1,000,000
128,000

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

1 shared
Index
Claude Opus 5.5
Granite 3.3 8B Instruct
Math
42.5#5
2.7#290
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

31 reported for Claude Opus 5.5 · 14 for Granite 3.3 8B Instruct

No common benchmarks found

Claude Opus 5.5 and Granite 3.3 8B Instructdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

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 Opus 5.5 ($4.00/1M tokens) is 8.0x more expensive than Granite 3.3 8B Instruct ($0.50/1M tokens).

For output processing, Claude Opus 5.5 ($20.00/1M tokens) is 40.0x more expensive than Granite 3.3 8B Instruct ($0.50/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Claude Opus 5.5 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
Tue Sep 22 2026 • llm-stats.com
Anthropic
Claude Opus 5.5
Input tokens$4.00
Output tokens$20.00
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 Opus 5.5 accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to Granite 3.3 8B Instruct's 128,000 tokens. Claude Opus 5.5 can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Granite 3.3 8B Instruct is limited to 8,192 tokens.

Anthropic
Claude Opus 5.5
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
IBM
Granite 3.3 8B Instruct
Input128,000 tokens
Output8,192 tokens
Tue Sep 22 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both Claude Opus 5.5 and Granite 3.3 8B Instruct support multimodal inputs.

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

Claude Opus 5.5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude Opus 5.5 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 Opus 5.5

Proprietary

Closed source

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude Opus 5.5 was released on 2026-09-22, while Granite 3.3 8B Instruct was released on 2025-04-16.

Claude Opus 5.5 is 17 months newer than Granite 3.3 8B Instruct.

Claude Opus 5.5

Sep 22, 2026

0 days ago

1.4yr newer
Granite 3.3 8B Instruct

Apr 16, 2025

1.4 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Claude Opus 5.5 has a knowledge cutoff of 2026-06-01, while Granite 3.3 8B Instruct has a cutoff of 2024-04-01.

Claude Opus 5.5 has more recent training data (up to 2026-06-01), making it potentially better informed about events through that date compared to Granite 3.3 8B Instruct (2024-04-01).

Claude Opus 5.5

Jun 2026

2.2 yr newer
Granite 3.3 8B Instruct

Apr 2024

Provider Availability

Claude Opus 5.5 is available from Anthropic. Granite 3.3 8B Instruct is available from Replicate.

Claude Opus 5.5

anthropic logo
Anthropic
Input Price:Input: $4.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $20.00/1M

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 Opus 5.5 and Granite 3.3 8B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Claude Opus 5.5
✓ Preferred
Granite 3.3 8B Instruct
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Claude Opus 5.5 vs Granite 3.3 8B Instruct.

Which is better, Claude Opus 5.5 or Granite 3.3 8B Instruct?

Claude Opus 5.5 leads the LLM Stats Score 59.8 to 2.4. Claude Opus 5.5 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 Opus 5.5 compare to Granite 3.3 8B Instruct in benchmarks?

Claude Opus 5.5 scores BenchCAD (with Python tool): 96.2%, Global-MMLU: 94.3%, SWE-bench Multilingual: 93.9%, MILU: 93.1%, ArXivMath: 91.2%. Granite 3.3 8B Instruct scores HumanEval: 89.7%, AttaQ: 88.5%, HumanEval+: 86.1%, AIME 2024: 81.2%, GSM8k: 80.9%.

Is Claude Opus 5.5 cheaper than Granite 3.3 8B Instruct?

Granite 3.3 8B Instruct is 8.0x cheaper for input tokens. Claude Opus 5.5 costs $4.00/M input and $20.00/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 Opus 5.5 and Granite 3.3 8B Instruct?

Claude Opus 5.5 supports 1.0M 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 Opus 5.5 and Granite 3.3 8B Instruct?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (59.8 vs 2.4), context window (1.0M vs 128K), input pricing ($4.00 vs $0.50/M), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude Opus 5.5 and Granite 3.3 8B Instruct?

Claude Opus 5.5 is developed by Anthropic and Granite 3.3 8B Instruct is developed by IBM.

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