The AI arena is free today

Open Superagent

GPT-5.6 Sol vs IBM Granite 4.2 30B

GPT-5.6 Sol leads the LLM Stats Score 56.6 to 24.0.

OpenAI · IBM · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

GPT-5.6 Sol leads the overall LLM Stats Score 56.6 to 24.0, ranking #1 overall.

In the 3 individual benchmarks reported for both models, GPT-5.6 Sol wins 3; 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 GPT-5.6 Sol

  • overall performance matters — it scores 56.6 and ranks #1 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 3 of 3 exact shared results

Choose IBM Granite 4.2 30B

  • 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.

Core performance indexes
56.6
#1
24.0
#157
55.9
#2
21.8
#166
48.9
#1
9.6
#159
42.6
#1
7.9
#125
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
3 of 3
0 of 3
Input price
$5.00 / M
— / M
Output price
$30.00 / M
— / M
Context window
1,050,000

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

3 shared
Index
GPT-5.6 Sol
IBM Granite 4.2 30B
36.5#37
25.5#103
33.7#4
10.6#117
32.3#2
14.0#50
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

44 reported for GPT-5.6 Sol · 18 for IBM Granite 4.2 30B

3 shared

GPT-5.6 Sol outperforms in 3 benchmarks (GPQA, SWE-Bench Pro, Terminal-Bench 2.1), while IBM Granite 4.2 30B is better at 0 benchmarks.

GPT-5.6 Sol significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Wed Sep 02 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only GPT-5.6 Sol specifies input context (1,050,000 tokens). Only GPT-5.6 Sol specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

OpenAI
GPT-5.6 Sol
Input1,050,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
IBM
IBM Granite 4.2 30B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Wed Sep 02 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

GPT-5.6 Sol supports multimodal inputs, whereas IBM Granite 4.2 30B does not.

GPT-5.6 Sol can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

GPT-5.6 Sol

Text
Images
Audio
Video

IBM Granite 4.2 30B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

GPT-5.6 Sol is licensed under a proprietary license, while IBM Granite 4.2 30B uses Apache 2.0.

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

GPT-5.6 Sol

Proprietary

Closed source

IBM Granite 4.2 30B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

GPT-5.6 Sol was released on 2026-07-09, while IBM Granite 4.2 30B was released on 2026-08-25.

IBM Granite 4.2 30B is 2 months newer than GPT-5.6 Sol.

GPT-5.6 Sol

Jul 9, 2026

1 months ago

IBM Granite 4.2 30B

Aug 25, 2026

1 weeks ago

1mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

GPT-5.6 Sol has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-02-16, while IBM Granite 4.2 30B's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm GPT-5.6 Sol's training data extends to 2026-02-16, but cannot make a direct comparison without IBM Granite 4.2 30B's cutoff date.

GPT-5.6 Sol

Feb 2026

IBM Granite 4.2 30B

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against GPT-5.6 Sol and IBM Granite 4.2 30B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

GPT-5.6 Sol
✓ Preferred
IBM Granite 4.2 30B
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about GPT-5.6 Sol vs IBM Granite 4.2 30B.

Which is better, GPT-5.6 Sol or IBM Granite 4.2 30B?

GPT-5.6 Sol leads the LLM Stats Score 56.6 to 24.0. GPT-5.6 Sol is made by OpenAI and IBM Granite 4.2 30B is made by IBM. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does GPT-5.6 Sol compare to IBM Granite 4.2 30B in benchmarks?

GPT-5.6 Sol scores Connectors: 100.0%, Capture-the-Flag Challenges (Internal): 96.7%, HealthBench Consensus: 95.5%, GPQA: 94.6%, MRCR v2 (8-needle): 91.5%. IBM Granite 4.2 30B scores RULER 64k: 90.0%, AIME 2025: 89.2%, HMMT25: 89.2%, RULER 128k: 81.4%, MMLU-Pro: 77.6%.

What are the context window sizes for GPT-5.6 Sol and IBM Granite 4.2 30B?

GPT-5.6 Sol supports 1.1M tokens and IBM Granite 4.2 30B 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 GPT-5.6 Sol and IBM Granite 4.2 30B?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (56.6 vs 24.0), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes GPT-5.6 Sol and IBM Granite 4.2 30B?

GPT-5.6 Sol is developed by OpenAI and IBM Granite 4.2 30B is developed by IBM.