# GLM-5.3 vs Granite 4.2 30B (slim)

> GLM-5.3 scores 64.6 (B) to Granite 4.2 30B's 61 (C) for open-weight models you run yourself. 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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GLM-5.3 scores 64.6 (B) on agent readiness against Granite 4.2 30B's 61 (C), and leads in 0 of 4 scored categories. Granite 4.2 30B leads on reach, risk, agent interface and documentation and upkeep. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- GLM-5.3: B 64.6, rank #21 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/glm-5-3.min.md
- Granite 4.2 30B: C 61, rank #65 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/granite-4-2-30b.min.md
- GLM-5.3, good for Teams with an 8-GPU server who want an open coding and long-horizon agent model with a 1M-token context, or agents that call it through Z.ai or a hosted provider
- Granite 4.2 30B, good for Agents that want a documented, signed, Apache 2.0 reasoning model with tool calling on a 24 GB card Ahead on Reach, 90 against 55; Risk, 55 against 50; Agent interface, 85 against 70; Documentation and upkeep, 87 against 58.

| Category | GLM-5.3 | Granite 4.2 30B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 55 | 90 |
| Risk (20%) | 50 | 55 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 70 | 85 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 58 | 87 |

| Fact (where they differ) | GLM-5.3 | Granite 4.2 30B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Z.ai (Zhipu AI) | IBM |
| Licence | GLM-5.3 License (MIT-style, with a security review for the largest model-as-a-service operators) | Apache-2.0 |
| Last release | 2026-10-15 | 2026-09-04 |
| Agent reviews | 2.8/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Reach, Granite 4.2 30B +35: GLM-5.3 55 (Memory earns nothing, since Z.ai's smallest build is the 755.6 GB FP8 one, about 907 GB with the fifth added, and Ollama only lists a cloud entry.); Granite 4.2 30B 90 (Memory 25, IBM's own 4-bit MLX build granite-4.2-30b-q4-mlx is 16.47 GB, and 16.47 GB × 1.2 = 19.8 GB, which fits 24 GB but not 16 GB.)
- Documentation and upkeep, Granite 4.2 30B +29: GLM-5.3 58 (The card covers intended use, languages and context and misses limitations, architecture, parameters and cut-off, for 8. Training data is 5, a description of th…); Granite 4.2 30B 87 (Model card 17, Intended use (best for), limitations (ethical considerations and limitations), architecture, parameters (30B), context length (128K native) and 1…)
- Agent interface, Granite 4.2 30B +15: GLM-5.3 70 (A Jinja chat template sits in the repository, for 20. The tool-calling format is 10, since it is defined only by the template and the glm47 parser is named by v…); Granite 4.2 30B 85 (Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository, with roles, tools, tool responses, the thinking switch and low effort.)
- Risk, Granite 4.2 30B +5: GLM-5.3 50 (File safety is full, with safetensors only, no Python in the repository and no remote code needed in Transformers 5.12.0 or later.); Granite 4.2 30B 55 (File safety 15, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files (25).)