IBM Granite 4.2 30B vs IBM Granite 4.2 8B
IBM Granite 4.2 30B and IBM Granite 4.2 8B are closely matched at 24.0 and 19.9 on the LLM Stats Score.
IBM · IBM · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
IBM Granite 4.2 30B and IBM Granite 4.2 8B are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 24.0 and 19.9.
In the 18 individual benchmarks reported for both models, IBM Granite 4.2 30B wins 17; 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 IBM Granite 4.2 30B
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 17 of 18 exact shared results
Choose IBM Granite 4.2 8B
- you are already invested in the IBM ecosystem
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
18 reported for IBM Granite 4.2 30B · 18 for IBM Granite 4.2 8B
IBM Granite 4.2 30B outperforms in 17 benchmarks (AIME 2025, Arena-Hard v2, BFCL-V4, Bird-SQL (dev), GPQA, HMMT25, LiveCodeBench v6, MMLU-Pro, ProfBench, RULER 128k, RULER 64k, SciCode, SWE-bench Multilingual, SWE-Bench Pro, SWE-Bench Verified, TAU3-Bench, Terminal-Bench 2.1), while IBM Granite 4.2 8B is better at 1 benchmark (IFBench).
IBM Granite 4.2 30B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
IBM Granite 4.2 30B has 22.0B more parameters than IBM Granite 4.2 8B, making it 275.0% larger.
License
Usage and distribution terms
Both models are licensed under Apache 2.0.
Both models share the same licensing terms, providing consistent usage rights.
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Both models were released on 2026-08-25.
They likely represent similar generations of model development.
Aug 25, 2026
6 days ago
Aug 25, 2026
6 days ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against IBM Granite 4.2 30B and IBM Granite 4.2 8B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about IBM Granite 4.2 30B vs IBM Granite 4.2 8B.