# Agents-A1-4B vs Granite 4.2 8B (slim)

> Agents-A1-4B and Granite 4.2 8B score within a point of each other for open-weight models you run yourself, 61 and 61 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-10
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Agents-A1-4B and Granite 4.2 8B score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 61 (C) and 61 (C). Granite 4.2 8B leads on reach, agent interface and documentation and upkeep. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- Agents-A1-4B: C 61, rank #39 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agents-a1-4b.min.md
- Granite 4.2 8B: C 61, rank #66 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/granite-4-2-8b.min.md
- Agents-A1-4B, good for Local agent loops (search, research, tool calls) on a laptop, a small GPU or a phone-class machine, under a plain licence
- Granite 4.2 8B, good for Agents that want a documented, signed, Apache 2.0 reasoning model with tool calling on a 16 GB machine Ahead on Reach, 95 against 90; Agent interface, 85 against 70; Documentation and upkeep, 92 against 43.

| Category | Agents-A1-4B | Granite 4.2 8B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 90 | 95 |
| Risk (20%) | 55 | 55 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 70 | 85 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 43 | 92 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Agents-A1-4B | Granite 4.2 8B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | InternScience (Shanghai AI Laboratory) | IBM |
| Last release | 2026-07-14 | 2026-10-20 |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Documentation and upkeep, Granite 4.2 8B +49: Agents-A1-4B 43 (Model card 8, it covers intended use, parameters and context but not the architecture, limitations, languages or a knowledge cut-off.); Granite 4.2 8B 92 (Model card 17, Intended use (best for), limitations (ethical considerations and limitations), architecture, parameters (8B), context length (128K native) and 12…)
- Agent interface, Granite 4.2 8B +15: Agents-A1-4B 70 (Chat template 20, a Jinja file in the repository.); Granite 4.2 8B 85 (Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository, with roles, tools, tool responses, the thinking switch and low effort.)
- Reach, Granite 4.2 8B +5: Agents-A1-4B 90 (Memory 30, InternScience's Q4_K_M GGUF with its vision projector is 3.4 GB and needs about 4.1 GB with the fifth added.); Granite 4.2 8B 95 (Memory 30, IBM's own 4-bit MLX build granite-4.2-8b-q4-mlx is 4.95 GB, and 4.95 GB × 1.2 = 5.9 GB, within 8 GB.)