IBM Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
IBM Granite 4.2 30B leads the LLM Stats Score 24.0 to 18.4.
IBM · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
IBM Granite 4.2 30B leads the overall LLM Stats Score 24.0 to 18.4, ranking #156 overall.
In the 6 individual benchmarks reported for both models, IBM Granite 4.2 30B wins 4; 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
- overall performance matters — it scores 24.0 and ranks #156 on LLM Stats
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 4 of 6 exact shared results
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026
Choose Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
- you want predictable pricing at $0.20/M input and $0.99/M output
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 · 50 for Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
IBM Granite 4.2 30B outperforms in 4 benchmarks (AIME 2025, Arena-Hard v2, HMMT25, LiveCodeBench v6), while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU-Pro).
IBM Granite 4.2 30B shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking has 1.0B more parameters than IBM Granite 4.2 30B, making it 3.3% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking specifies input context (131,072 tokens). Only Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking specifies output context (32,768 tokens).
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking supports multimodal inputs, whereas IBM Granite 4.2 30B does not.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
IBM Granite 4.2 30B
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
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
IBM Granite 4.2 30B was released on 2026-08-25, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.
IBM Granite 4.2 30B is 11 months newer than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking.
Aug 25, 2026
6 days ago
11mo newerSep 22, 2025
11 months 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 Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about IBM Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking.