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IBM Granite 4.2 3B vs Mistral Small

Comparing IBM Granite 4.2 3B and Mistral Small across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

IBM · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

IBM Granite 4.2 3B and Mistral Small trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.

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 Mistral Small

  • you want predictable pricing at $0.20/M input and $0.60/M output

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

IBM Granite 4.2 3B
IBM
Mistral Small
Mistral AI
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
— / M
$0.20 / M
Output price
— / M
$0.60 / M
Context window
—
32,768

Individual benchmarks

13 reported for IBM Granite 4.2 3B · 0 for Mistral Small

No common benchmarks found

IBM Granite 4.2 3B and Mistral Smalldon'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

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

19.0B diff

Mistral Small has 19.0B more parameters than IBM Granite 4.2 3B, making it 633.3% larger.

IBM
IBM Granite 4.2 3B
3.0Bparameters
Mistral AI
Mistral Small
22.0Bparameters
3.0B
IBM Granite 4.2 3B
22.0B
Mistral Small

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Mistral Small specifies input context (32,768 tokens). Only Mistral Small specifies output context (32,768 tokens).

IBM
IBM Granite 4.2 3B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mistral AI
Mistral Small
Input32,768 tokens
Output32,768 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 Mistral Small uses Mistral Research License.

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

Mistral Small

Mistral Research License

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

IBM Granite 4.2 3B was released on 2026-08-25, while Mistral Small was released on 2024-09-17.

IBM Granite 4.2 3B is 24 months newer than Mistral Small.

IBM Granite 4.2 3B

Aug 25, 2026

6 days ago

1.9yr newer
Mistral Small

Sep 17, 2024

2.0 years 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 Mistral Small side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

IBM Granite 4.2 3B
✓ Preferred
Mistral Small
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about IBM Granite 4.2 3B vs Mistral Small.

Which is better, IBM Granite 4.2 3B or Mistral Small?

IBM Granite 4.2 3B (IBM) and Mistral Small (Mistral AI) each have strengths in different areas. Compare their benchmark scores, pricing, context windows, and capabilities above to determine which fits your needs.

How does IBM Granite 4.2 3B compare to Mistral Small 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%.

What are the context window sizes for IBM Granite 4.2 3B and Mistral Small?

IBM Granite 4.2 3B supports an unknown number of tokens and Mistral Small supports 33K 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 Mistral Small?

Key differences include licensing (Apache 2.0 vs Mistral Research License). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes IBM Granite 4.2 3B and Mistral Small?

IBM Granite 4.2 3B is developed by IBM and Mistral Small is developed by Mistral AI.

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