IBM Granite 4.2 8B vs Grok 4.5: Specs & Benchmark Comparison
IBM Granite 4.2 8B is developed by IBM, while Grok 4.5 comes from xAI. Grok 4.5 was released in July 2026, and IBM Granite 4.2 8B followed a month later in August 2026. IBM Granite 4.2 8B has a published size of about 8 billion parameters; xAI has not disclosed the parameter count of Grok 4.5.
The two models share 3 published benchmarks. Grok 4.5 leads on 3 of them. The widest gaps are on Terminal-Bench 2.1, where Grok 4.5 scores 83.0% against 20.6%; SWE-Bench Pro, where Grok 4.5 scores 65.0% against 19.1%. Averaged across everything we track, IBM Granite 4.2 8B sits at 56.7% and Grok 4.5 at 52.9%.
Grok 4.5 is available through an API at $2 per million input tokens with a 500K-token context window. We do not track a hosted API for IBM Granite 4.2 8B, so pricing and context cannot be compared directly.
| Characteristic | IBM Granite 4.2 8B | Grok 4.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Company | IBM | xAI |
| Release Date | August 25, 2026 | July 16, 2026 |
| Parameters | 8B | — |
| Multimodal | No | Yes |
| Context (input) | — | 500K |
| Input Price / 1M | — | $2.00 |
| Output Price / 1M | — | $6.00 |
| Average Score | 56.7% | 52.9% |
| Benchmarks | ||
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 20.6% | 83.0% |
| SWE-Bench Pro | 19.1% | 65.0% |
| GPQA | 64.1% | 93.0% |
Visual Benchmark Comparison
Verdict
IBM Granite 4.2 8B leads in 1 out of 2 comparison categories.
Both models show comparable average scores: IBM Granite 4.2 8B — 0.6, Grok 4.5 — 0.5.
IBM Granite 4.2 8B is newer: released 8/25/2026 vs 7/16/2026.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — IBM Granite 4.2 8B or Grok 4.5?
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The IBM Granite 4.2 8B and Grok 4.5 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 8B or Grok 4.5 page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.