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IBM Granite 4.2 3B vs QvQ-72B-Preview

IBM Granite 4.2 3B and QvQ-72B-Preview are closely matched at 15.6 and 8.1 on the LLM Stats Score.

IBM · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

IBM Granite 4.2 3B and QvQ-72B-Preview are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 15.6 and 8.1.

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 QvQ-72B-Preview

  • you are already invested in the Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team ecosystem

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Core performance indexes
15.6
#213
8.1
#266
12.0
#234
8.4
#260
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
Input price
— / M
— / M
Output price
— / M
— / M
Context window

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

1 shared
Index
IBM Granite 4.2 3B
QvQ-72B-Preview
13.7#216
9.8#243
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

13 reported for IBM Granite 4.2 3B · 4 for QvQ-72B-Preview

No common benchmarks found

IBM Granite 4.2 3B and QvQ-72B-Previewdon'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

70.4B diff

QvQ-72B-Preview has 70.4B more parameters than IBM Granite 4.2 3B, making it 2346.7% larger.

IBM
IBM Granite 4.2 3B
3.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
QvQ-72B-Preview
73.4Bparameters
3.0B
IBM Granite 4.2 3B
73.4B
QvQ-72B-Preview

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

QvQ-72B-Preview supports multimodal inputs, whereas IBM Granite 4.2 3B does not.

QvQ-72B-Preview can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

IBM Granite 4.2 3B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

QvQ-72B-Preview

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

IBM Granite 4.2 3B is licensed under Apache 2.0, while QvQ-72B-Preview uses Qwen.

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

QvQ-72B-Preview

Qwen

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

IBM Granite 4.2 3B was released on 2026-08-25, while QvQ-72B-Preview was released on 2024-12-25.

IBM Granite 4.2 3B is 20 months newer than QvQ-72B-Preview.

IBM Granite 4.2 3B

Aug 25, 2026

6 days ago

1.7yr newer
QvQ-72B-Preview

Dec 25, 2024

1.7 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 QvQ-72B-Preview side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

IBM Granite 4.2 3B
✓ Preferred
QvQ-72B-Preview
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about IBM Granite 4.2 3B vs QvQ-72B-Preview.

Which is better, IBM Granite 4.2 3B or QvQ-72B-Preview?

IBM Granite 4.2 3B and QvQ-72B-Preview are closely matched on the LLM Stats Score at 15.6 and 8.1. IBM Granite 4.2 3B is made by IBM and QvQ-72B-Preview is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. 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 QvQ-72B-Preview 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%. QvQ-72B-Preview scores MathVista: 71.4%, MMMU: 70.3%, MathVision: 35.9%, OlympiadBench: 20.4%.

What are the main differences between IBM Granite 4.2 3B and QvQ-72B-Preview?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (15.6 vs 8.1), multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (Apache 2.0 vs Qwen). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes IBM Granite 4.2 3B and QvQ-72B-Preview?

IBM Granite 4.2 3B is developed by IBM and QvQ-72B-Preview is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.