IBM Granite 4.2 3B vs LFM2.5-2.6B: Specs & Benchmark Comparison
IBM Granite 4.2 3B is developed by IBM, while LFM2.5-2.6B comes from Liquid AI. Both were released in August 2026. The two are similar in size, at about 3 billion and 3 billion parameters respectively.
The two models share 4 published benchmarks. IBM Granite 4.2 3B leads on 3 of them, LFM2.5-2.6B on 1. The widest gaps are on AIME 2025, where IBM Granite 4.2 3B scores 78.3% against 51.9%; IFBench, where IBM Granite 4.2 3B scores 74.3% against 59.2%. Averaged across everything we track, IBM Granite 4.2 3B sits at 55.7% and LFM2.5-2.6B at 55.5%.
IBM Granite 4.2 3B is available through an API at $0.03 per million input tokens with a 131K-token context window. We do not track a hosted API for LFM2.5-2.6B, so pricing and context cannot be compared directly.
| Characteristic | IBM Granite 4.2 3B | LFM2.5-2.6B |
|---|---|---|
| Company | IBM | Liquid AI |
| Release Date | August 25, 2026 | August 4, 2026 |
| Parameters | 3B | 3B |
| Multimodal | No | No |
| Context (input) | 131K | — |
| Context (output) | 131K | — |
| Input Price / 1M | $0.03 | — |
| Output Price / 1M | $0.12 | — |
| Average Score | 55.7% | 55.5% |
| Benchmarks | ||
| AIME 2025 | 78.3% | 51.9% |
| IFBench | 74.3% | 59.2% |
| LiveCodeBench v6 | 69.7% | 59.4% |
| BFCL-V4 | 52.4% | 56.9% |
Visual Benchmark Comparison
Verdict
IBM Granite 4.2 3B leads in 1 out of 2 comparison categories.
Both models show comparable average scores: IBM Granite 4.2 3B — 0.6, LFM2.5-2.6B — 0.6.
IBM Granite 4.2 3B is newer: released 8/25/2026 vs 8/4/2026.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — IBM Granite 4.2 3B or LFM2.5-2.6B?
Which model is cheaper — IBM Granite 4.2 3B or LFM2.5-2.6B?
Which has a larger context window — IBM Granite 4.2 3B or LFM2.5-2.6B?
The IBM Granite 4.2 3B and LFM2.5-2.6B comparison is updated for 2026. Data includes benchmark results, API pricing, context window size and other specifications. For more detailed information, visit the IBM Granite 4.2 3B or LFM2.5-2.6B page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.