The AI arena is free today

Open Superagent

Granite 3.3 8B Base vs Llama 3.2 3B Instruct

Granite 3.3 8B Base and Llama 3.2 3B Instruct are closely matched at -0.3 and -5.9 on the LLM Stats Score.

IBM · Meta · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Granite 3.3 8B Base and Llama 3.2 3B Instruct are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at -0.3 and -5.9.

In the 5 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Llama 3.2 3B Instruct wins 3; 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 Granite 3.3 8B Base

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2025

Choose Llama 3.2 3B Instruct

  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 3 of 5 exact shared results

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Granite 3.3 8B Base
IBM
Llama 3.2 3B Instruct
Meta
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
-0.3
#316
-5.9
#349
Reasoning
-0.5
#311
-6.6
#341
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
2 of 5
3 of 5
Input price
— / M
$0.01 / M
Output price
— / M
$0.02 / M
Context window
—
128,000

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

1 shared
Index
Granite 3.3 8B Base
Llama 3.2 3B Instruct
Math
-0.5#290
-3.3#304
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

20 reported for Granite 3.3 8B Base · 15 for Llama 3.2 3B Instruct

5 shared

Granite 3.3 8B Base outperforms in 2 benchmarks (HellaSwag, MMLU), while Llama 3.2 3B Instruct is better at 3 benchmarks (ARC-C, GSM8k, IFEval).

Llama 3.2 3B Instruct has a slight edge in benchmark performance.

Sun Sep 06 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

5.0B diff

Granite 3.3 8B Base has 5.0B more parameters than Llama 3.2 3B Instruct, making it 154.5% larger.

IBM
Granite 3.3 8B Base
8.2Bparameters
Meta
Llama 3.2 3B Instruct
3.2Bparameters
8.2B
Granite 3.3 8B Base
3.2B
Llama 3.2 3B Instruct

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Llama 3.2 3B Instruct specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Llama 3.2 3B Instruct specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

IBM
Granite 3.3 8B Base
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Meta
Llama 3.2 3B Instruct
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Sun Sep 06 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Granite 3.3 8B Base supports multimodal inputs, whereas Llama 3.2 3B Instruct does not.

Granite 3.3 8B Base can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Granite 3.3 8B Base

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Llama 3.2 3B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Granite 3.3 8B Base is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Llama 3.2 3B Instruct uses Llama 3.2 Community License.

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

Granite 3.3 8B Base

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Llama 3.2 3B Instruct

Llama 3.2 Community License

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Granite 3.3 8B Base was released on 2025-04-16, while Llama 3.2 3B Instruct was released on 2024-09-25.

Granite 3.3 8B Base is 7 months newer than Llama 3.2 3B Instruct.

Granite 3.3 8B Base

Apr 16, 2025

1.4 years ago

6mo newer
Llama 3.2 3B Instruct

Sep 25, 2024

1.9 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Granite 3.3 8B Base has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-04-01, while Llama 3.2 3B Instruct'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 Llama 3.2 3B Instruct's cutoff date.

Granite 3.3 8B Base

Apr 2024

Llama 3.2 3B Instruct

—

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Granite 3.3 8B Base and Llama 3.2 3B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Granite 3.3 8B Base
✓ Preferred
Llama 3.2 3B Instruct
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Granite 3.3 8B Base vs Llama 3.2 3B Instruct.

Which is better, Granite 3.3 8B Base or Llama 3.2 3B Instruct?

Granite 3.3 8B Base and Llama 3.2 3B Instruct are closely matched on the LLM Stats Score at -0.3 and -5.9. Granite 3.3 8B Base is made by IBM and Llama 3.2 3B Instruct is made by Meta. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Granite 3.3 8B Base compare to Llama 3.2 3B Instruct in benchmarks?

Granite 3.3 8B Base scores HumanEval: 89.7%, AttaQ: 88.5%, HumanEval+: 86.1%, AIME 2024: 81.2%, HellaSwag: 80.1%. Llama 3.2 3B Instruct scores NIH/Multi-needle: 84.7%, ARC-C: 78.6%, GSM8k: 77.7%, IFEval: 77.4%, HellaSwag: 69.8%.

What are the context window sizes for Granite 3.3 8B Base and Llama 3.2 3B Instruct?

Granite 3.3 8B Base supports an unknown number of tokens and Llama 3.2 3B 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 Granite 3.3 8B Base and Llama 3.2 3B Instruct?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (-0.3 vs -5.9), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Apache 2.0 vs Llama 3.2 Community License). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Granite 3.3 8B Base and Llama 3.2 3B Instruct?

Granite 3.3 8B Base is developed by IBM and Llama 3.2 3B Instruct is developed by Meta.

Related comparisons