The AI arena is free today

Open Superagent

IBM Granite 4.2 3B vs LongCat-Flash-Lite

IBM Granite 4.2 3B and LongCat-Flash-Lite are closely matched at 15.6 and 19.0 on the LLM Stats Score.

IBM · Meituan · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

IBM Granite 4.2 3B and LongCat-Flash-Lite are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 15.6 and 19.0.

In the 3 individual benchmarks reported for both models, LongCat-Flash-Lite wins 2; 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 IBM Granite 4.2 3B

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026

Choose LongCat-Flash-Lite

  • your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 3 exact shared results

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

IBM Granite 4.2 3B
IBM
LongCat-Flash-Lite
Meituan
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
15.6
#213
19.0
#194
Reasoning
12.0
#234
19.2
#187
Coding
-6.7
#247
7.4
#173
Agents
2.0
#152
4.3
#143
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
1 of 3
2 of 3
Input price
— / M
$0.10 / M
Output price
— / M
$0.40 / M
Context window
—
256,000

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

2 shared
Index
IBM Granite 4.2 3B
LongCat-Flash-Lite
Math
13.7#216
17.5#186
Tool use
5.3#144
10.7#115
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

13 reported for IBM Granite 4.2 3B · 13 for LongCat-Flash-Lite

3 shared

IBM Granite 4.2 3B outperforms in 1 benchmarks (AIME 2025), while LongCat-Flash-Lite is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU-Pro).

LongCat-Flash-Lite shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.

Mon Aug 31 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

65.5B diff

LongCat-Flash-Lite has 65.5B more parameters than IBM Granite 4.2 3B, making it 2183.3% larger.

IBM
IBM Granite 4.2 3B
3.0Bparameters
Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Lite
68.5Bparameters
3.0B
IBM Granite 4.2 3B
68.5B
LongCat-Flash-Lite

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only LongCat-Flash-Lite specifies input context (256,000 tokens). Only LongCat-Flash-Lite specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

IBM
IBM Granite 4.2 3B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Lite
Input256,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Mon Aug 31 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

IBM Granite 4.2 3B is licensed under Apache 2.0, while LongCat-Flash-Lite uses MIT.

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

IBM Granite 4.2 3B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

LongCat-Flash-Lite

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

IBM Granite 4.2 3B was released on 2026-08-25, while LongCat-Flash-Lite was released on 2026-02-05.

IBM Granite 4.2 3B is 7 months newer than LongCat-Flash-Lite.

IBM Granite 4.2 3B

Aug 25, 2026

6 days ago

6mo newer
LongCat-Flash-Lite

Feb 5, 2026

6 months ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against IBM Granite 4.2 3B and LongCat-Flash-Lite side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

IBM Granite 4.2 3B
✓ Preferred
LongCat-Flash-Lite
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about IBM Granite 4.2 3B vs LongCat-Flash-Lite.

Which is better, IBM Granite 4.2 3B or LongCat-Flash-Lite?

IBM Granite 4.2 3B and LongCat-Flash-Lite are closely matched on the LLM Stats Score at 15.6 and 19.0. IBM Granite 4.2 3B is made by IBM and LongCat-Flash-Lite is made by Meituan. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does IBM Granite 4.2 3B compare to LongCat-Flash-Lite in benchmarks?

IBM Granite 4.2 3B scores AIME 2025: 78.3%, IFBench: 74.3%, LiveCodeBench v6: 69.7%, MMLU-Pro: 67.8%, RULER 64k: 67.5%. LongCat-Flash-Lite scores MATH-500: 96.8%, MMLU: 85.5%, CMMLU: 82.5%, MMLU-Pro: 78.3%, Tau2 Retail: 73.1%.

What are the context window sizes for IBM Granite 4.2 3B and LongCat-Flash-Lite?

IBM Granite 4.2 3B supports an unknown number of tokens and LongCat-Flash-Lite supports 256K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between IBM Granite 4.2 3B and LongCat-Flash-Lite?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (15.6 vs 19.0), licensing (Apache 2.0 vs MIT). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes IBM Granite 4.2 3B and LongCat-Flash-Lite?

IBM Granite 4.2 3B is developed by IBM and LongCat-Flash-Lite is developed by Meituan.

Related comparisons