# Gemma 4 E2B IT vs Granite 4.2 8B (slim)

> Granite 4.2 8B and Gemma 4 E2B IT score within a point of each other for open-weight models you run yourself, 61 and 60.4 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemma-4-e2b-it-vs-granite-4-2-8b.md (~8,800 tokens) · this version ~580 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemma-4-e2b-it-vs-granite-4-2-8b.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemma-4-e2b-it-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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Granite 4.2 8B and Gemma 4 E2B IT score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 61 (C) and 60.4 (C). Gemma 4 E2B IT leads on risk. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- Gemma 4 E2B IT: C 60.4, rank #88 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gemma-4-e2b-it.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
- Gemma 4 E2B IT, good for Agents that need a cheap, permissively licensed helper on 8 GB of memory, for tool calls, short audio or images, rather than hard reasoning Ahead on Risk, 70 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 Documentation and upkeep, 92 against 75.

| Category | Gemma 4 E2B IT | Granite 4.2 8B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 95 | 95 |
| Risk (20%) | 70 | 55 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 85 | 85 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 75 | 92 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Gemma 4 E2B IT | Granite 4.2 8B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Google DeepMind | IBM |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-20 |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Documentation and upkeep, Granite 4.2 8B +17: Gemma 4 E2B IT 75 (Model card 20, all seven items are there.); 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…)
- Risk, Gemma 4 E2B IT +15: Gemma 4 E2B IT 70 (File safety 25, safetensors and GGUF only, with nothing from the repository run on load.); Granite 4.2 8B 55 (File safety 15, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files (25).)