# Cosmos-Reason2-2B vs Granite 4.2 8B (slim)

> Granite 4.2 8B scores 61 (C) to Cosmos-Reason2-2B's 59.5 (C) for open-weight models you run yourself. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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Granite 4.2 8B scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against Cosmos-Reason2-2B's 59.5 (C), and leads in 3 of 4 scored categories. Cosmos-Reason2-2B leads on risk. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- Cosmos-Reason2-2B: C 59.5, rank #95 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cosmos-reason2-2b.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
- Cosmos-Reason2-2B, good for Agents that need a small local model to reason over camera footage and images for robotics, driving or smart spaces Ahead on Risk, 60 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 65; Agent interface, 85 against 65; Documentation and upkeep, 92 against 39.

| Category | Cosmos-Reason2-2B | Granite 4.2 8B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 65 | 95 |
| Risk (20%) | 60 | 55 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 65 | 85 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 39 | 92 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Cosmos-Reason2-2B | Granite 4.2 8B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | NVIDIA | IBM |
| Licence | NVIDIA Open Model License (custom, commercial use allowed, not an OSI licence); built on Qwen3-VL-2B-Instruct under Apache 2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Last release | 2026-03-10 | 2026-10-20 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-10-24 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not read yet |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Documentation and upkeep, Granite 4.2 8B +53: Cosmos-Reason2-2B 39 (The card misses languages and a cut-off (14).); 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…)
- Reach, Granite 4.2 8B +30: Cosmos-Reason2-2B 65 (Memory earns the full 30 because the BF16 file is 4.9 GB, about 5.9 GB with the fifth added, though NVIDIA itself asks for 24 GB of GPU memory.); 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.)
- Agent interface, Granite 4.2 8B +20: Cosmos-Reason2-2B 65 (A Jinja template ships as chat_template.json (20).); 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.)
- Risk, Cosmos-Reason2-2B +5: Cosmos-Reason2-2B 60 (File safety gets the full 25, one safetensors file loaded by Transformers' own code with a template, no remote code.); Granite 4.2 8B 55 (File safety 15, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files (25).)
