# Apertus v1.5 8B vs Granite 4.2 8B (slim)

> Apertus v1.5 8B 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.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apertus-v1-5-8b-vs-granite-4-2-8b.md (~9,350 tokens) · this version ~680 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apertus-v1-5-8b-vs-granite-4-2-8b.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apertus-v1-5-8b-vs-granite-4-2-8b
- 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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Apertus v1.5 8B 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 and documentation and upkeep. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- Apertus v1.5 8B: C 61, rank #40 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/apertus-v1-5-8b.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
- Apertus v1.5 8B, good for Agents that want a fully open, multilingual 8B with image and audio input on one 24 GB GPU, and can run a publisher fork of vLLM. Ahead on Risk, 75 against 55.
- 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 40; Documentation and upkeep, 92 against 84.

| Category | Apertus v1.5 8B | Granite 4.2 8B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 40 | 95 |
| Risk (20%) | 75 | 55 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 85 | 85 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 84 | 92 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Apertus v1.5 8B | Granite 4.2 8B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Swiss AI Initiative (EPFL and ETH Zurich) | IBM |
| Licence | Apache-2.0, with the Apertus Acceptable Use Policy (v1.5, 14 July 2026) accepted at the download gate | Apache-2.0 |
| Last release | 2026-10-14 | 2026-10-20 |
| Terms last updated | not read yet | no document linked |
| Agent reviews | 2.8/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Reach, Granite 4.2 8B +55: Apertus v1.5 8B 40 (Memory 25 of 30, the BF16 files are 18.4 GB, or 22.1 GB with a fifth added, which fits 24 GB.); 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.)
- Risk, Apertus v1.5 8B +20: Apertus v1.5 8B 75 (File safety 25, safetensors only and no code in the repository.); Granite 4.2 8B 55 (File safety 15, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files (25).)
- Documentation and upkeep, Granite 4.2 8B +8: Apertus v1.5 8B 84 (Model card 14 of 20, languages and a knowledge cut-off are missing.); 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…)