AI Models · Open-Source vs Paid

Granite 4.2 8B Open vs Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch) Paid

Granite 4.2 8B vs Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch) compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Can the open-source model replace the paid one? Full 2026 breakdown.

Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch) — full profile ›

Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai

Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.

Granite 4.2 8BOpenIBM

$0.06 /M input
$0.25 /M outputNo per-token fees if you self-host

TypeOpen-weight

Context window131K tokens

MultimodalNo

Self-hostYes

Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch)PaidMistral AI

$0.25 /M input
$0.75 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)

TypeProprietary

Context window262K tokens

MultimodalYes

Self-hostNo

Choose Granite 4.2 8B if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch) if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

Granite 4.2 8B vs Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch) specs

Spec	Granite 4.2 8B	Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch)	Winner
Maker	IBM	Mistral AI	–
Type	Open-weight	Proprietary	Granite 4.2 8B
Context window	131K tokens	262K tokens	Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch)
Input price	$0.06/M · free self-host	$0.25/M	Granite 4.2 8B
Output price	$0.25/M · free self-host	$0.75/M	Granite 4.2 8B
Vision / multimodal	No	Yes	Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch)
Tool / function calling	Yes	Yes	= Tie
Self-hostable	Yes	No (API only)	Granite 4.2 8B
License	Apache 2.0	Proprietary	Granite 4.2 8B

Price gap & when to choose each

3.0×cheaper per output token

Granite 4.2 8B is ~3.0× cheaper than Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch) on output tokens ($0.25 vs $0.75 per M tokens).

Choose Granite 4.2 8B if…

You want to self-host or run on your cloud
You prioritize data privacy & control
You want the lowest operating costs
You are building open or reproducible AI

Choose Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch) if…

You want frontier performance through a managed API
You need the longer 262K context window
You value reliability & ecosystem
You don't want to manage infrastructure

Feature comparison

Capability	Granite 4.2 8B	Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch)
Open weights (downloadable)	✓	✗
Self-hostable	✓	✗
Runs fully offline	✓	✗
Vision / multimodal	✗	✓
Tool / function calling	✓	✓
1M+ context window	✗	✗

Benchmarks: Granite 4.2 8B vs Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch)

Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).

Granite 4.2 8B delivers 8.6× more intelligence per dollar.

Granite 4.2 8B

Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch)

Intelligence index

11.8

9.7

Coding index

22.4

20.1

GPQA

63.1%

68%

Humanity's Last Exam

9.7%

4.2%

Long Context Reasoning

45%

36%

SciCode

31.5%

36.6%

τ-Bench Banking

7.6%

5.8%

Terminal-Bench

18.4%

12%

Math index

–

MMLU-Pro

–

80.7%

LiveCodeBench

–

46.5%

AIME 2025

–

38%

IFBench

–

36.2%

τ²-Bench

–

24.6%

Terminal-Bench Hard

–

15.9%

Speed

95.3 tok/s

81.3 tok/s

Latency

0.25s

0.68s

Intelligence per $

110.3

12.9

Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.

How Granite 4.2 8B and Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch) score

🏆 Best value & openness: Granite 4.2 8B (4.4 vs 3.3 / 5)

Criterion	Granite 4.2 8B	Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch)
Cost-efficiency	5.0	5.0
Context window	3.5	4.0
Openness	5.0	1.5
Self-hosting	5.0	1.0
Multimodality	3.5	5.0

Scores come from live data — output price (cost), context length, open vs closed weights (openness & self-hosting) and vision/tool support (multimodality). Raw task quality isn't scored here; it depends on your benchmark — see the verdict.

What each model is

Granite 4.2 8B Open

IBM · Open-weight

Granite 4.2 8B is a dense reasoning model from IBM. It is suited for mathematics, code generation, multilingual dialogue, and agentic workflows that need multi-step reasoning. It supports full, low-effort,...

Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch) Paid

Mistral AI · Proprietary

Mistral Large 3 2512 is Mistral’s most capable model to date, featuring a sparse mixture-of-experts architecture with 41B active parameters (675B total), and released under the Apache 2.0 license.

Other models in these families

These variants are tracked but not compared here — one page per family keeps the comparison readable.

Other variants tracked

Granite 4.0 Micro

Frequently asked questions

Is Granite 4.2 8B as good as Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch)?

Granite 4.2 8B is open-weight and competitive on many tasks, but Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch) may still lead on the hardest reasoning and agentic work. The gap keeps narrowing — benchmark both on your actual use case before deciding.

Can I run Granite 4.2 8B locally?

Yes. Granite 4.2 8B has open weights, so you can self-host it on your own GPUs or run it via a low-cost API. Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch) is API-only and cannot be self-hosted.

How much cheaper is Granite 4.2 8B?

Granite 4.2 8B costs $0.25/M output vs $0.75/M for Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch) — roughly 3x cheaper via API, and free if you self-host.

Granite 4.2 8B vs Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch) — which should I pick in 2026?

Choose Granite 4.2 8B if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch) if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

People also compare

Hy3 vs Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch)GLM 5.3 vs Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch)DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch)MiMo-V2.5-Pro vs Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch)Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch)Kimi K3 (batch) vs Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch)

Explore more open-source AI

Browse the full open-source model leaderboard, thousands of tools and live benchmarks — all in one place.

Open the leaderboard →