The Granat satellite, launched into highly eccentric orbit on December 1, 1989, carries the Phebus experiment designed for cosmic and solar gamma‐ray burst spectroscopy in the 0.1–100 MeV energy range. The sensor system consists of six independent Bismuth germanate (BGO) detectors giving a large efficiency at high energy (each detector has a photopeak effective area of more than 20 cm2above 10 MeV). In 1990, the Phebus experiment observed 49 gamma‐ray bursts (GRB) with a large fraction (about 35%) of short duration events (less than 2 seconds). We compare here typical spectra of short and longer bursts with emphasis on the maximum energy and on the hypothetical existence of spectral features above 1 MeV.