IBM Granite 4.2 3B vs Phi 4 Reasoning Plus
IBM Granite 4.2 3B and Phi 4 Reasoning Plus are closely matched at 15.0 and 14.5 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 15.0 and 14.5.
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.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only IBM Granite 4.2 3B specifies input context (131,072 tokens). Only IBM Granite 4.2 3B specifies output context (131,072 tokens).
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
1 months ago
1.3yr newerApr 30, 2025
1.5 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.