IBM Granite 4.2 3B vs Phi 4 Reasoning Plus
IBM Granite 4.2 3B and Phi 4 Reasoning Plus are closely matched at 15.6 and 15.3 on the LLM Stats Score.
IBM · Microsoft · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
IBM Granite 4.2 3B and Phi 4 Reasoning Plus are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 15.6 and 15.3.
In the 3 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Phi 4 Reasoning Plus 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 Phi 4 Reasoning Plus
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 3 exact shared results
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
13 reported for IBM Granite 4.2 3B · 11 for Phi 4 Reasoning Plus
IBM Granite 4.2 3B outperforms in 1 benchmarks (AIME 2025), while Phi 4 Reasoning Plus is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU-Pro).
Phi 4 Reasoning Plus shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Phi 4 Reasoning Plus has 11.0B more parameters than IBM Granite 4.2 3B, making it 366.7% larger.
License
Usage and distribution terms
IBM Granite 4.2 3B is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Phi 4 Reasoning Plus uses MIT.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Apache 2.0
Open weights
MIT
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
IBM Granite 4.2 3B was released on 2026-08-25, while Phi 4 Reasoning Plus was released on 2025-04-30.
IBM Granite 4.2 3B is 16 months newer than Phi 4 Reasoning Plus.
Aug 25, 2026
6 days ago
1.3yr newerApr 30, 2025
1.3 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Phi 4 Reasoning Plus has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-03-01, while IBM Granite 4.2 3B's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Phi 4 Reasoning Plus's training data extends to 2025-03-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without IBM Granite 4.2 3B's cutoff date.
—
Mar 2025
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against IBM Granite 4.2 3B and Phi 4 Reasoning Plus side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about IBM Granite 4.2 3B vs Phi 4 Reasoning Plus.