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IBM Granite 4.2 30B vs Ministral 8B Instruct

IBM Granite 4.2 30B leads the LLM Stats Score 24.0 to -4.5.

IBM · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

IBM Granite 4.2 30B leads the overall LLM Stats Score 24.0 to -4.5, ranking #157 overall.

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

Choose IBM Granite 4.2 30B

  • overall performance matters — it scores 24.0 and ranks #157 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026

Choose Ministral 8B Instruct

  • you want predictable pricing at $0.10/M input and $0.10/M output

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

IBM Granite 4.2 30B
IBM
Ministral 8B Instruct
Mistral AI
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
24.0
#157
-4.5
#336
Reasoning
21.8
#166
-4.5
#327
Coding
9.6
#160
-14.4
#254
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
— / M
$0.10 / M
Output price
— / M
$0.10 / M
Context window
—
128,000

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

1 shared
Index
IBM Granite 4.2 30B
Ministral 8B Instruct
Math
25.5#103
-3.7#306
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

18 reported for IBM Granite 4.2 30B · 11 for Ministral 8B Instruct

No common benchmarks found

IBM Granite 4.2 30B and Ministral 8B Instructdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

22.0B diff

IBM Granite 4.2 30B has 22.0B more parameters than Ministral 8B Instruct, making it 274.1% larger.

IBM
IBM Granite 4.2 30B
30.0Bparameters
Mistral AI
Ministral 8B Instruct
8.0Bparameters
30.0B
IBM Granite 4.2 30B
8.0B
Ministral 8B Instruct

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Ministral 8B Instruct specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Ministral 8B Instruct specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

IBM
IBM Granite 4.2 30B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mistral AI
Ministral 8B Instruct
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Wed Sep 02 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

IBM Granite 4.2 30B is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Ministral 8B Instruct uses Mistral Research License.

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

IBM Granite 4.2 30B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Ministral 8B Instruct

Mistral Research License

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

IBM Granite 4.2 30B was released on 2026-08-25, while Ministral 8B Instruct was released on 2024-10-16.

IBM Granite 4.2 30B is 23 months newer than Ministral 8B Instruct.

IBM Granite 4.2 30B

Aug 25, 2026

1 weeks ago

1.9yr newer
Ministral 8B Instruct

Oct 16, 2024

1.9 years ago

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 IBM Granite 4.2 30B and Ministral 8B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

IBM Granite 4.2 30B
✓ Preferred
Ministral 8B Instruct
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about IBM Granite 4.2 30B vs Ministral 8B Instruct.

Which is better, IBM Granite 4.2 30B or Ministral 8B Instruct?

IBM Granite 4.2 30B leads the LLM Stats Score 24.0 to -4.5. IBM Granite 4.2 30B is made by IBM and Ministral 8B Instruct is made by Mistral AI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does IBM Granite 4.2 30B compare to Ministral 8B Instruct in benchmarks?

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%. Ministral 8B Instruct scores MT-Bench: 83.0%, Winogrande: 75.3%, ARC-C: 71.9%, Arena Hard: 70.9%, MBPP pass@1: 70.0%.

What are the context window sizes for IBM Granite 4.2 30B and Ministral 8B Instruct?

IBM Granite 4.2 30B supports an unknown number of tokens and Ministral 8B Instruct supports 128K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between IBM Granite 4.2 30B and Ministral 8B Instruct?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (24.0 vs -4.5), licensing (Apache 2.0 vs Mistral Research License). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes IBM Granite 4.2 30B and Ministral 8B Instruct?

IBM Granite 4.2 30B is developed by IBM and Ministral 8B Instruct is developed by Mistral AI.

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