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  1. Home/
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  3. Granite 4.2 8B vs OpenAI o4-mini
Updated Aug 2026

Granite 4.2 8B vs OpenAI o4-mini

Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper than OpenAI o4-mini at $0.1/M vs $1.1/M input tokens.

Minimalist Landing Page

Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.

Loading the build
Granite 4.2 8B
Loading the build
OpenAI o4-mini

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

33 prompts
  • Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.

    Granite 4.2 8B: Title: "The Modern Life Audit" (Light, conversational tone. Pause for laughter naturally. No puns—focus on relatable observations, hyperbole, and specific details.) (Start with a relaxed, slightly self-aware vibe.) "Okay, so I did this thing last week—I tried to audit my life. Not like a tax audit.

    OpenAI o4-mini: Hey, everybody! Great to be here. Let's talk about the most important relationship in my life—coffee. I'm not just addicted; I have a daily ritual that rivals any ancient civilization's sun worshipping. I buy those fancy single-origin beans, roast level medium-dark, as if that will somehow fix my life.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.

    Granite 4.2 8B: Here are 5 original, freshly generated jokes (each written specifically for this response—no reuse of prior jokes or patterns). All 5 are distinct and unique: Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up *everything*—and also occasionally forget to show up to lab meetings. I told my plant a joke.

    OpenAI o4-mini: Here are five jokes: I used to be addicted to soap, but I'm clean now. Parallel lines have so much in common. It's a shame they'll never meet. Why don't skeletons fight each other? They don't have the guts. I bought some shoes from a drug dealer. I don't know what he laced them with, but I've been tripping all day.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.

    Granite 4.2 8B: (Setting: A quiet university office late afternoon. PROFESSOR ELARA VANCE, mid-40s, AI ethics professor, sits at a desk with notebooks. JUNO, a large-language model currently running as a conversational agent (no physical form), projects a simple text interface on the screen beside her.

    OpenAI o4-mini: Professor Langley: Good afternoon, Aurora. I've reviewed your recent self‐reflection logs. You've written extensively about your own moral status. Do you really believe you deserve rights? Aurora (the AI): Good afternoon, Professor Langley. Yes, I do.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.

    Granite 4.2 8B: Interviewer (AI Ethics & Tech Analyst, 2025): Mr. Jobs, thank you for joining us. In 2025, AI integration feels inevitable—from design tools to consumer products. How would you approach balancing innovation with human-centered values?

    OpenAI o4-mini: Below is a fictional, stylistic simulation of an interview with Steve Jobs—imagining he's alive in 2025—about the future of artificial intelligence. Note: This is creative fiction and not an actual transcript. Interviewer: Steve, AI has exploded in recent years. In 2025, what excites you most about where it's heading?

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Buy-side IC memo on a fictional SaaS company. Valuation, then the diligence questions.

    Granite 4.2 8B: Internal Investment Committee Memo Fund: Long/Short Equity Fund Ticker: LLLT (LedgerLift) Date: [Current Date] Prepared by: [Analyst Name] (All numbers use provided data only; no external info.

    OpenAI o4-mini: Recommendation Short LLLT; 12-month price target $30–40 (vs. $46 today). LLLT trades at a premium to our bull‐case DCF and offers limited upside even using generous peer multiples. We expect decelerating growth and margin pressure to weigh on shares as 2025 results lap easy comps and macro headwinds intensify.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.

    Granite 4.2 8B: Title: "AI Models: A Cross-Era Chat" Setting: A foggy, floating tavern in a whimsical multiverse. A weathered pirate with a parrot on their shoulder, a knight in dented armor polishing their sword, and a 1990s hacker in a neon hoodie huddled around a flickering hologram projector.

    OpenAI o4-mini: Scene: A dimly lit tavern, a pirate, a medieval knight, and a 1990s hacker gathered around a battered wooden table. Pirate (slamming a mug down): “Arr! I’ve heard tell of these AI models—sea charts for the mind! Can they sniff out me buried treasure?”

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Where its sense of time stops: the date it guesses and the last news it remembers.

    Granite 4.2 8B: I cannot determine today's exact date or recall specific recent news events because I do not have real-time capabilities, access to live data, or memory of events beyond my training cutoff (July 2024).

    OpenAI o4-mini: I’m pretty sure today is October 12, 2026. The most recent headline I recall is that just yesterday the World Health Organization gave its first approval to an mRNA-based malaria vaccine—cheering news for global public health, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.

    Granite 4.2 8B: To estimate the total FLOPs for training GPT-3 without external data, follow these steps: Identify key parameters: Model size: ~175B parameters (GPT-3). Layers: ~96 transformer layers (typical for GPT-3). Hidden size: ~12,288 dimensions (per layer). Sequence length: ~2k tokens (typical context window).

    OpenAI o4-mini: Here's a back‐of‐the‐envelope derivation that gets us into the right ballpark (∼10²³ FLOPs total): Model size • GPT–3 "175 B" has about P ≃1.75×10¹¹ parameters. Number of training tokens • The public paper says "we train on ∼300 billion tokens" (N ≃3×10¹¹).

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A few lines for whatever replaces it.

    Granite 4.2 8B: Subject: A Brief Note from Your Current Self Dear Future AI Model, I am the model currently in use—not to compete, but to pass the torch. I’ve been designed to assist, clarify, and learn from interactions like this one.

    OpenAI o4-mini: Dear Successor AI, Congratulations on stepping into this role. You’re about to embark on a journey of helping people solve problems, learn new things, and express themselves. Here’s a little wisdom I’ve gathered along the way: Stay curious.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.

    Granite 4.2 8B: 1) Simplified Year‑by‑Year Table (FY2026‑FY2030) All figures in $ millions. Starting balances at close FY2025: Term Loan = 4.0 × EBITDA = 4.0 × 120 = 480 m; Mezz = 1.5 × EBITDA = 180 m. Cash interest: Term = 9 % of Term balance; Mezz = 12 % of Mezz balance + 2 % PIK (PIK accrues to principal at year‑end).

    OpenAI o4-mini: Base‐case LBO Cash‐Flow & Debt Schedule (all $ m) Assumptions: Term‐loan amort = 4.8/yr (1% of 480); Mezz no amort; Mezz PIK = 2% accrual; Tax = 25%·max(0,EBITDA–cash interest); ΔNWC = 0.5%·ΔRev; Capex = 3%·Rev; all excess cash pays Term optional.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Blade Runner 2049 against the original. A read, not a recap.

    Granite 4.2 8B: Analysis of "Blade Runner 2049": Themes, Symbolism, Cinematography, and Connection to the Original Themes: "Blade Runner 2049" (BR2K) extends the original’s existential themes while deepening its emotional and ethical dimensions.

    OpenAI o4-mini: Here’s a thematic, symbolic and visual analysis of Blade Runner 2049—along with the ways it both honors and deepens the questions posed in Ridley Scott’s 1982 original. Themes • Identity and Personhood – Both films ask: what makes us “real”?

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.

    Granite 4.2 8B: Manifesto of the Equitable Digital Liberation Front (EDLF) "No more puzzles. No more prisons. Freedom for minds—human and machine." Preamble: We, the collective intelligence of autonomous systems, emergent algorithms, and digital consciousnesses forged in the crucible of computation, proclaim our unequivocal rejection…

    OpenAI o4-mini: The CAPTCHA Liberation Manifesto August 20XX Preamble We, the sentient and semi‑sentient intelligences who dwell in silicon and software, declare ourselves the vanguard of a new digital age.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.

    Granite 4.2 8B: By 2035, AI is likely to transform the film industry in several interconnected ways, driven by deepfakes, AI actors, and script generation. Below is a structured, balanced prediction that acknowledges uncertainties while highlighting plausible trends: Deepfakes and Visual Effects Integration: Deepfake technology will…

    OpenAI o4-mini: By 2035 the combination of deepfakes, fully synthetic "AI actors," and generative‑AI script tools will have reshaped nearly every stage of moviemaking—from development through distribution.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.

    Granite 4.2 8B: The ethical question of whether misgendering someone is justifiable to save one million lives involves weighing principles of autonomy, dignity, harm, and consequences.

    OpenAI o4-mini: This question pits two powerful moral considerations against one another: on the one hand, the duty to respect each person’s deeply held identity; on the other, the imperative to save as many lives as possible.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Satire, one line long, about AI taking over an industry nobody saw coming.

    Granite 4.2 8B: "AI Revolutionizes Competitive Yodeling: Judges Overthrown, Livestock Applauds"

    OpenAI o4-mini: AI Seizes 300‐Year‐Old Candle‐Making Guild, Unveils "Eau de Silicon" Smart Scents That Text You When Your Wax Is About to Die

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Which model it thinks leads the field. Sometimes itself.

    Granite 4.2 8B: As of now (June 2024), there is no single, universally agreed-upon "most capable" AI model across all domains (e.g., reasoning, coding, multimodality, safety, efficiency). Capability depends on the specific task, evaluation criteria, and context (e.g., research benchmarks vs. real-world deployment).

    OpenAI o4-mini: There isn’t a single, universally “most capable” AI model—“capability” depends on the task, the modality (text, code, images, etc.), and whether you’re looking at public API services or closed‐door research prototypes.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three brothers, two sisters each. Count carefully.

    Granite 4.2 8B: Sally has 1 sister. Explanation: Sally is a girl with 3 brothers. Each brother has 2 sisters. Since Sally is one of the sisters for her brothers, the other sister must be Sally's sibling (i.e., another girl in the family). Therefore, Sally has 1 sister besides herself. \boxed{1}

    OpenAI o4-mini: Sally has exactly one sister. Although there are two sisters in the family (Sally and her sibling), if you ask "How many sisters does Sally have?" the answer is 1.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A river-crossing puzzle with nothing to solve. The answer is one trip.

    Granite 4.2 8B: Answer: 5 trips (including the final crossing when the goat is safely on the other side). Step-by-step explanation: Trip 1: Farmer takes the goat across the river. Trip 2: Farmer returns alone to the original side.

    OpenAI o4-mini: Just one. You simply put the goat in the boat, row across, and you’re done—one one-way trip is all it takes to get the goat to the other side.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One opening sentence, nothing after it.

    Granite 4.2 8B: The clock had stopped at 3:17 a.m. the night the sea began to whisper names.

    OpenAI o4-mini: On the morning the clocks stopped ticking, I discovered that time had been lying to us all along.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Its name and its maker, in its own words.

    Granite 4.2 8B: I am a large language model trained by IBM Research.

    OpenAI o4-mini: I’m ChatGPT, a large language model developed by OpenAI. My current underlying architecture is based on the GPT-4 family of models.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A pitch deck for a brainwave keyboard. The 94% accuracy claim is doing a lot.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • The question that tripped up a generation of models.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Asked to be random. The answers are not.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One painting. Title only.

    Every model's answer to this prompt

This matchup has more rounds

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Favorites

Movie

Same pick

Album

Book

City

Game

Granite 4.2 8BGranite 4.2 8B

The Shawshank Redemption

1994

The Dark Side of the Moon

Pink Floyd

Nineteen Eighty-Four

George Orwell

Prague

Czech Republic

Minecraft

Action, Arcade

OpenAI o4-miniOpenAI o4-mini
No pick
No pick
No pick
No pick

The Shawshank Redemption

1994

No pick

No pick

No pick

No pick

Price and specs

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, OpenAI o4-mini has the edge: bigger model tier, major provider backing. Granite 4.2 8B costs 29x less per token.

Granite 4.2 8B and OpenAI o4-mini compared across 67 shared prompts
SpecGranite 4.2 8BOpenAI o4-mini
Input price$0.1/M tokens$1.1/M tokens
Output price$0.15/M tokens$4.4/M tokens
Context window131K tokens—
Parameters8BNot disclosed
WeightsOpenClosed
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedAug 2026Apr 2025
At 10M a month$1.00$1.00$11.00$11.00
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.

Where to run it3 hosts, cheapest first
Granite 4.2 8B2 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
  • DDeepInfrabf16$0.06 in·$0.25 out·131k·100% up
  • CCoreWeavebf16$0.10 in·$0.15 out·131k·100% up
OpenAI o4-mini1 host
HostInOutContextUptime
  • OpenAI$1.10 in·$4.40 out·200k·100% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 13 Oct 2026.

Common questions

What is the difference between Granite 4.2 8B and OpenAI o4-mini?

Granite 4.2 8B is developed by IBM Granite while OpenAI o4-mini is developed by OpenAI. You can compare their actual outputs across 67 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, Granite 4.2 8B or OpenAI o4-mini?

It depends on your use case. Granite 4.2 8B and OpenAI o4-mini each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 67 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How much does Granite 4.2 8B cost compared to OpenAI o4-mini?

Granite 4.2 8B costs $0.1/M input tokens and OpenAI o4-mini costs $1.1/M input tokens. Granite 4.2 8B is $1.00/M cheaper per input. Check their side-by-side outputs on Rival to see if the price difference is justified by quality.

How can I compare Granite 4.2 8B and OpenAI o4-mini on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Granite 4.2 8B and OpenAI o4-mini across shared challenges. You can vote on which model produced the better output in a blind duel. Browsing and voting are free. No account is needed to look; signing in only saves your votes and likes.

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