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Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs IBM Granite 4.2 8B

Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads the LLM Stats Score 58.3 to 19.6. IBM Granite 4.2 8B is 37.2x cheaper per token.

Anthropic · IBM · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 58.3 to 19.6, ranking #2 overall.

In the 2 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Claude Sonnet 5.5 wins 2; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, IBM Granite 4.2 8B is roughly 37.2x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 5.5

  • overall performance matters — it scores 58.3 and ranks #2 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 2 exact shared results
  • 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 IBM Granite 4.2 8B

  • cost matters — it's about 37.2x cheaper per token
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Claude Sonnet 5.5
Anthropic
IBM Granite 4.2 8B
IBM
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
58.3
#2
19.6
#217
Reasoning
56.8
#2
17.3
#225
Coding
48.6
#2
2.1
#240
Agents
42.5
#3
1.6
#183
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
2 of 2
0 of 2
Input price
$2.00 / M
$0.06 / M
Output price
$10.00 / M
$0.25 / M
Context window
1,000,000
131,072

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

2 shared
Index
Claude Sonnet 5.5
IBM Granite 4.2 8B
Math
37.6#30
21.1#155
Tool use
34.3#2
1.4#183
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

47 reported for Claude Sonnet 5.5 · 18 for IBM Granite 4.2 8B

2 shared

Claude Sonnet 5.5 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (SWE-bench Multilingual, SWE-Bench Pro), while IBM Granite 4.2 8B is better at 0 benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Fri Oct 09 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

IBM Granite 4.2 8B costs less

For input processing, Claude Sonnet 5.5 ($2.00/1M tokens) is 33.3x more expensive than IBM Granite 4.2 8B ($0.06/1M tokens).

For output processing, Claude Sonnet 5.5 ($10.00/1M tokens) is 40.0x more expensive than IBM Granite 4.2 8B ($0.25/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Claude Sonnet 5.5 is more expensive than IBM Granite 4.2 8B.*

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

Lowest available price from all providers
Fri Oct 09 2026 • llm-stats.com
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Input tokens$2.00
Output tokens$10.00
Best providerAnthropic
IBM
IBM Granite 4.2 8B
Input tokens$0.06
Output tokens$0.25
Best providerDeepinfra
Notice missing or incorrect data?

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Claude Sonnet 5.5 accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to IBM Granite 4.2 8B's 131,072 tokens. IBM Granite 4.2 8B can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while Claude Sonnet 5.5 is limited to 128,000 tokens.

Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
IBM
IBM Granite 4.2 8B
Input131,072 tokens
Output131,072 tokens
Fri Oct 09 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Claude Sonnet 5.5 supports multimodal inputs, whereas IBM Granite 4.2 8B does not.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Claude Sonnet 5.5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

IBM Granite 4.2 8B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is licensed under a proprietary license, while IBM Granite 4.2 8B uses Apache 2.0.

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

Claude Sonnet 5.5

Proprietary

Closed source

IBM Granite 4.2 8B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude Sonnet 5.5 was released on 2026-09-28, while IBM Granite 4.2 8B was released on 2026-08-25.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is 1 month newer than IBM Granite 4.2 8B.

Claude Sonnet 5.5

Sep 28, 2026

1 weeks ago

1mo newer
IBM Granite 4.2 8B

Aug 25, 2026

1 months ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Claude Sonnet 5.5 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-06-01, while IBM Granite 4.2 8B's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Claude Sonnet 5.5's training data extends to 2026-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without IBM Granite 4.2 8B's cutoff date.

Claude Sonnet 5.5

Jun 2026

IBM Granite 4.2 8B

—

Provider Availability

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is available from Anthropic. IBM Granite 4.2 8B is available from DeepInfra.

Claude Sonnet 5.5

anthropic logo
Anthropic
Input Price:Input: $2.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $10.00/1M

IBM Granite 4.2 8B

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.06/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.25/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Claude Sonnet 5.5 and IBM Granite 4.2 8B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Claude Sonnet 5.5
✓ Preferred
IBM Granite 4.2 8B
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs IBM Granite 4.2 8B.

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or IBM Granite 4.2 8B?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads the LLM Stats Score 58.3 to 19.6. Claude Sonnet 5.5 is made by Anthropic and IBM Granite 4.2 8B 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 Sonnet 5.5 compare to IBM Granite 4.2 8B in benchmarks?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores BenchCAD (with Python tool): 96.3%, ArXivMath (with tools): 95.2%, Global-MMLU: 92.1%, MILU: 91.6%, SWE-bench Multilingual: 90.3%. IBM Granite 4.2 8B scores AIME 2025: 86.7%, RULER 64k: 81.0%, IFBench: 79.3%, HMMT25: 78.3%, MMLU-Pro: 74.0%.

Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 cheaper than IBM Granite 4.2 8B?

IBM Granite 4.2 8B is 33.3x cheaper for input tokens. Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $2.00/M input and $10.00/M output via anthropic. IBM Granite 4.2 8B costs $0.06/M input and $0.25/M output via deepinfra.

What are the context window sizes for Claude Sonnet 5.5 and IBM Granite 4.2 8B?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 supports 1.0M tokens and IBM Granite 4.2 8B supports 131K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Claude Sonnet 5.5 and IBM Granite 4.2 8B?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (58.3 vs 19.6), context window (1.0M vs 131K), input pricing ($2.00 vs $0.06/M), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude Sonnet 5.5 and IBM Granite 4.2 8B?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is developed by Anthropic and IBM Granite 4.2 8B is developed by IBM.

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