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Claude Opus 4.6 vs IBM Granite 4.2 3B

Claude Opus 4.6 leads the LLM Stats Score 45.3 to 15.6.

Anthropic · IBM · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Claude Opus 4.6 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 45.3 to 15.6, ranking #29 overall.

In the 2 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Claude Opus 4.6 wins 2; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Claude Opus 4.6

  • overall performance matters — it scores 45.3 and ranks #29 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 2 exact shared results

Choose IBM Granite 4.2 3B

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Claude Opus 4.6
Anthropic
IBM Granite 4.2 3B
IBM
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
45.3
#29
15.6
#213
Reasoning
45.7
#23
12.0
#234
Coding
33.3
#30
-6.7
#247
Agents
28.1
#34
2.0
#152
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
2 of 2
0 of 2
Input price
$5.00 / M
— / M
Output price
$25.00 / M
— / M
Context window
1,000,000
—

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

3 shared
Index
Claude Opus 4.6
IBM Granite 4.2 3B
Math
40.1#15
13.7#216
Tool use
25.4#28
5.3#144
Long context
25.0#13
-2.2#108
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

27 reported for Claude Opus 4.6 · 13 for IBM Granite 4.2 3B

2 shared

Claude Opus 4.6 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA), while IBM Granite 4.2 3B is better at 0 benchmarks.

Claude Opus 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Mon Aug 31 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Claude Opus 4.6 specifies input context (1,000,000 tokens). Only Claude Opus 4.6 specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

Anthropic
Claude Opus 4.6
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
IBM
IBM Granite 4.2 3B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mon Aug 31 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Claude Opus 4.6 supports multimodal inputs, whereas IBM Granite 4.2 3B does not.

Claude Opus 4.6 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Claude Opus 4.6

Text
Images
Audio
Video

IBM Granite 4.2 3B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude Opus 4.6 is licensed under a proprietary license, while IBM Granite 4.2 3B uses Apache 2.0.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Claude Opus 4.6

Proprietary

Closed source

IBM Granite 4.2 3B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude Opus 4.6 was released on 2026-02-05, while IBM Granite 4.2 3B was released on 2026-08-25.

IBM Granite 4.2 3B is 7 months newer than Claude Opus 4.6.

Claude Opus 4.6

Feb 5, 2026

6 months ago

IBM Granite 4.2 3B

Aug 25, 2026

6 days ago

6mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Claude Opus 4.6 and IBM Granite 4.2 3B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Claude Opus 4.6
✓ Preferred
IBM Granite 4.2 3B
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Claude Opus 4.6 vs IBM Granite 4.2 3B.

Which is better, Claude Opus 4.6 or IBM Granite 4.2 3B?

Claude Opus 4.6 leads the LLM Stats Score 45.3 to 15.6. Claude Opus 4.6 is made by Anthropic and IBM Granite 4.2 3B is made by IBM. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Claude Opus 4.6 compare to IBM Granite 4.2 3B in benchmarks?

Claude Opus 4.6 scores Vending-Bench 2: 100.0%, AIME 2025: 99.8%, Tau2 Telecom: 99.3%, Graphwalks parents >128k: 95.4%, Tau2 Retail: 91.9%. IBM Granite 4.2 3B scores AIME 2025: 78.3%, IFBench: 74.3%, LiveCodeBench v6: 69.7%, MMLU-Pro: 67.8%, RULER 64k: 67.5%.

What are the context window sizes for Claude Opus 4.6 and IBM Granite 4.2 3B?

Claude Opus 4.6 supports 1.0M tokens and IBM Granite 4.2 3B supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Claude Opus 4.6 and IBM Granite 4.2 3B?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (45.3 vs 15.6), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude Opus 4.6 and IBM Granite 4.2 3B?

Claude Opus 4.6 is developed by Anthropic and IBM Granite 4.2 3B is developed by IBM.

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