Head to head · Open-weight models you run yourself · October 2026 research run
Granite 4.2 30B vs Inkling 2 Small
Granite 4.2 30B scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against Inkling 2 Small's 58.8 (C), and leads in 2 of 4 scored categories. Inkling 2 Small leads on risk. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.
Best open-weight models you download and run yourself for AI agents · All 6472 open weights comparisons
Which one, for what
Best 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 40
- Documentation and upkeep, 87 against 67
Watch for
No safety results published for it
Best for Teams with 512 GB or more of datacentre GPU memory who want Thinking Machines' newest open multimodal agent model and can run a runtime's pre-release image.
Ahead on
- Risk, 65 against 55
Watch for
The smaller checkpoint needs about 472 GB, and Thinking Machines says 500 GB of GPU memory
Why the edge
Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.
Reach Granite 4.2 30B +50
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. Its Q4_0 GGUF is 16.58 GB and Ollama's library build granite4.2:30b 18 GB, the same band. Runtimes 25, Released versions run the granite architecture in llama.cpp (granite, b12242), vLLM (GraniteForCausalLM in the v0.33.0 registry), SGLang (granite.py at v0.5.23), Transformers (v5.22.2) and Ollama (its own granite4.2 library entry, 30b tag). Builds 15, IBM publishes FP8, MXFP4 and NVFP4 safetensors builds, a GGUF repository with Q4_0 to Q8_0 and BF16 files, and 4-bit, 8-bit and BF16 MLX builds, so quantised builds at two precisions or more. Terms 15, Apache 2.0, an OSI-approved licence, with no use policy or other terms added on the card. Download 10, the Hub API reports gated false for the BF16, FP8, MXFP4, NVFP4, GGUF and MLX repositories, so the files download with no account and nothing to accept. Hosted 0, Hugging Face maps one inference provider (DeepInfra, live), short of the two the line needs. 25 + 25 + 15 + 15 + 10 + 0 = 90.
Inkling 2 Small 40
Memory 0 of 30, the smallest build is Thinking Machines' NVFP4 checkpoint at 393.5 GB, about 472 GB with a fifth added, above the 256 GB line. Runtimes 0, no released version of the six runs it; vLLM and SGLang serve it from their own images and Transformers has it on its main branch only. Builds 15, two precisions from the publisher (NVFP4 and MXFP8). Terms 10, Apache 2.0 with a binding acceptable use policy on top, read as a custom licence. Download 10, no gate. Hosted 5, Thinking Machines' own Tinker serves it as beta serverless inference, and Together is live on Hugging Face. 0 + 0 + 15 + 10 + 10 + 5 = 40.
Documentation and upkeep Granite 4.2 30B +20
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 12 tested languages are on the card. Training data 20, IBM's disclosure file for the 30B lists the datasets used in pre-training and post-training as machine-readable metadata, and the card describes the three training stages. Last change 15, the last commit to the repository was on 4 September 2026, 67 days before this check. Responsiveness 20, Of the 4 discussions that aren't pull requests (28 August to 3 November 2026), 3 have a reply from an ibm-granite member. Version policy 5, Granite 4.1 30B stays in its own repository and 4.2 came out in new ones. File health 10, Config, template and card agree on the architecture, the 131,072-token context and the thinking switch. 17 + 20 + 15 + 20 + 5 + 10 = 87.
Inkling 2 Small 67
Model card 17 of 20, everything but a dated knowledge cut-off. Training data 15, an EU training-content summary with sources, mix, an October 2026 collection cut-off and filtering. Last change 20, the files were uploaded on 12 November 2026. Responsiveness 0, the repository has no questions yet, which reads as none answered. Version policy 5, a first release. File health 10, the files agree and no broken-file report waits. 17 + 15 + 20 + 0 + 5 + 10 = 67.
Risk Inkling 2 Small +10
Granite 4.2 30B 55
File safety 15, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files (25). Provenance 15, the files sit in the ibm-granite organisation, which IBM's Granite docs and the GitHub README link to (10). Safety evaluation 0, no safety results on the card. Agent guidance 5, General cautions. Licence risk 15, Apache 2.0 has no use policy, field-of-use limit, threshold or change clause, and the card's licence link resolves. Security programme 5, www.ibm.com/.well-known/security.txt names IBM PSIRT, read for the 3B listing on 4 November 2026 (5). 15 + 15 + 0 + 5 + 15 + 5 = 55.
Inkling 2 Small 65
File safety 25, safetensors only and no repository code to run. Provenance 15, the files are in the organisation Thinking Machines links to, with a SHA-256 on every LFS file. Safety evaluation 10, Thinking Machines' own StrongREJECT, FORTRESS, HoneyBench and DistressBench results and described outside red-teaming, but nothing an outside party published or a harness to rerun. Agent guidance 5, the card names safeguards to add but doesn't say what its refusals cover, with nothing on prompt injection. Licence risk 5, 10 off for a use policy that reaches beyond the law and that can change at any time. Security programme 5, a security.txt and a disclosure policy, with public advisories unchecked and scored as absent. 25 + 15 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 65.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Granite 4.2 30B | Inkling 2 Small | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | 35%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Reach | 25%25 | 90 | 40 | Granite 4.2 30B +50 |
| Risk | 20%20 | 55 | 65 | Inkling 2 Small +10 |
| Agent interface | 10%10 | 85 | 85 | even |
| Documentation and upkeep | 10%10 | 87 | 67 | Granite 4.2 30B +20 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | C 61/100 | C 58.8/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Granite 4.2 30B | Inkling 2 Small |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Open-weight model | Open-weight model |
| Vendor | IBM | Thinking Machines Lab |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-04 | 2026-11-12 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
How the scores have moved
Granite 4.2 30B
No score change since it was listed.
Verdicts
Granite 4.2 30B
IBM's largest reasoning cousin, with the same strengths as the 3B. It runs in every runtime we count from IBM's own builds on a 24 GB card, is signed, plain Apache 2.0, and comes with a disclosure of its training data. No safety results are published and structured output isn't documented.
Inkling 2 Small
Thinking Machines' newest open model, a 594B mixture-of-experts generalist with images in, several tool calls a turn and per-request thinking effort. The NVFP4 checkpoint needs about 472 GB, and no released runtime runs it yet, so today that means vLLM's or SGLang's own images, or Tinker and Together hosted. The use policy binds on download and can change.
Before you call either
Granite 4.2 30B
- Start it with
ollama run granite4.2:30b, orllama-server -hf ibm-granite/granite-4.2-30b-GGUF:Q4_K_M --jinja - With vLLM 0.32.0 or later leave out
--reasoning-parser-plugin, since the parser is built in, and use--tool-call-parser qwen3_coder - Thinking is on by default. Pass
enable_thinkingfalse to turn it off orlow_efforttrue for short reasoning - The context is 131,072 tokens. The card's 512K extension isn't documented
- Validate JSON output yourself, since structured output isn't documented
- IBM recommends Granite Guardian beside it to flag risky inputs and outputs
Inkling 2 Small
- No released runtime runs it yet. Serve the NVFP4 checkpoint from SGLang's dev-inkling-2-small image with the cookbook's recipe for your hardware, or from vLLM's vllm/vllm-openai:inkling-2-small image
- In vLLM pass
--reasoning-parser inkling --enable-auto-tool-choice --tool-call-parser inkling. In SGLang the tool-call parser isinkling2and the reasoning parserinkling - Transformers' main branch loads only thinkingmachines/Inkling-2-Small-MXFP8, the 622.8 GB checkpoint, and no release has the code yet
- Pass
reasoning_effortas none, minimal, low, medium, high (the default), xhigh or max, or a number from 0 to 0.99 - Effort none conditions the model toward no reasoning but doesn't forbid it, and higher effort needs a larger max_tokens
- Tool call arguments must reach the template as an object, not a JSON string, or it raises an error
- Images should be 40 to 4096 px a side. The model takes no audio, and the template raises an error for an audio part
- Use guided decoding or validate JSON yourself, since structured output isn't documented
- Without the hardware, call it on Tinker's OpenAI-compatible endpoint with a Tinker key, at $0.30 input and $1.00 output per million tokens as read on 6 November 2026
- Read the Model Acceptable Use Policy before deploying, it binds on download and bars some uses that are legal
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Granite 4.2 30B or Inkling 2 Small?
Granite 4.2 30B scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against Inkling 2 Small's 58.8 (C), and leads in 2 of 4 scored categories. Inkling 2 Small leads on risk.
Other comparisons with Granite 4.2 30B or Inkling 2 Small
- Agents-A1-4B vs Granite 4.2 30B
- Agents-A1-4B vs Inkling 2 Small
- Apertus v1.5 8B vs Granite 4.2 30B
- Apertus v1.5 8B vs Inkling 2 Small
- Apodex-1.1-mini vs Granite 4.2 30B
- Apodex-1.1-mini vs Inkling 2 Small
- Arete-27B vs Granite 4.2 30B
- Arete-27B vs Inkling 2 Small
- BigBang-v1 vs Granite 4.2 30B
- BigBang-v1 vs Inkling 2 Small
- Carbon-X vs Granite 4.2 30B
- Carbon-X vs Inkling 2 Small
- Cola2 vs Granite 4.2 30B
- Cola2 vs Inkling 2 Small
- Cosmos-Reason2-2B vs Granite 4.2 30B
- Cosmos-Reason2-2B vs Inkling 2 Small
- Darwin-36B-Opus vs Granite 4.2 30B
- Darwin-36B-Opus vs Inkling 2 Small
- DeepSeek-V3.2 vs Granite 4.2 30B
- DeepSeek-V3.2 vs Inkling 2 Small
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Granite 4.2 30B
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Inkling 2 Small
- DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 vs Granite 4.2 30B
- DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 vs Inkling 2 Small
- Devstral Small 2 vs Granite 4.2 30B
- Devstral Small 2 vs Inkling 2 Small
- DiffusionGemma 26B A4B IT vs Granite 4.2 30B
- DiffusionGemma 26B A4B IT vs Inkling 2 Small
- EXAONE 4.5 33B vs Granite 4.2 30B
- EXAONE 4.5 33B vs Inkling 2 Small
- Gemma 4 12B IT vs Granite 4.2 30B
- Gemma 4 12B IT vs Inkling 2 Small
- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT vs Granite 4.2 30B
- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT vs Inkling 2 Small
- Gemma 4 31B IT vs Granite 4.2 30B
- Gemma 4 31B IT vs Inkling 2 Small
- Gemma 4 E2B IT vs Granite 4.2 30B
- Gemma 4 E2B IT vs Inkling 2 Small
- Gemma 4 E4B IT vs Granite 4.2 30B
- Gemma 4 E4B IT vs Inkling 2 Small
- GLM-4.5-Air vs Granite 4.2 30B
- GLM-4.5-Air vs Inkling 2 Small
- GLM-4.7-Flash vs Granite 4.2 30B
- GLM-4.7-Flash vs Inkling 2 Small
- GLM-5.3-Flash vs Granite 4.2 30B
- GLM-5.3-Flash vs Inkling 2 Small
- GLM-5.3 vs Granite 4.2 30B
- GLM-5.3 vs Inkling 2 Small
- gpt-oss-120b vs Granite 4.2 30B
- gpt-oss-120b vs Inkling 2 Small
- gpt-oss-20b vs Granite 4.2 30B
- gpt-oss-20b vs Inkling 2 Small
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Granite 4.2 3B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Granite 4.2 8B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Hy-Memory-30B-A3B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Hy3
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Inkling
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Inkling-Small
- Granite 4.2 30B vs InternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-Preview
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Kimi K3
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Kimi K3.1 Pro
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Kolibri-1
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Kronos
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Laguna M.1
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Laguna S 2.1
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Laguna XS 2.1
- Granite 4.2 30B vs LBS-27B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs LFM2.5-2.6B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs LFM3-1.7B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs LFM3-Audio-2B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs LFM3-Omni-2B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs LFM3-VL-2B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Ling-3.0-tiny
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Ling-3.1-flash-1019
- Granite 4.2 30B vs LongCat-2.5
- Granite 4.2 30B vs MiMo-V2.6 Distill Qwen 9B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs MiMo-V2.6-Flash-RL
- Granite 4.2 30B vs MiniCPM-o 4.5
- Granite 4.2 30B vs MiniCPM-V 4.7 1B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs MiniCPM5-2B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs MiniMax-M2.5
- Granite 4.2 30B vs MiniMax-M2.7
- Granite 4.2 30B vs MiniMax-M3.1-Flash
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Mistral Large 4
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Muse Glimmer 30B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Nanbeige4.2-3B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Nanbeige4.3-33B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Bolt E4B 4GB
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Nemotron 3 Nano 4B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs North Mini Code 1.0
- Granite 4.2 30B vs occamy-1.0
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Olmo 3 7B Think
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Ornith-1.5-122B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Ornith-1.5-35B-A3B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Ornith-1.5-397B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Ornith-1.5-9B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs OTel-2.0-LLM-31B-IT
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen-AgentWorld-35B-A3B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3-4B-Instruct-2507
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3.5-0.8B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3.5-122B-A10B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3.5-2B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3.5-4B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3.5-9B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3.6-27B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3.8-27B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3-Coder-Next
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B-Instruct
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3-VL-2B-Instruct
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3-VL-30B-A3B-Instruct
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3-VL-32B-Instruct
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3-VL-4B-Instruct
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwopus3.8-27B-Flash-V2
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Recursive Flint
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Ripple-65B Preview
- Granite 4.2 30B vs SenseNova-Loop-9B-Preview
- Granite 4.2 30B vs SmolLM3-3B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Spark-X2.6-4B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Step 3.7 Flash
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
- Granite 4.2 30B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Granite 4.2 30B vs Baidu Unlimited-OCR-2
- Granite 4.2 30B vs WeVisOne-VL-2B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs WeVisOne-VL-4B
- Granite 4.2 30B vs ZAYA1-8B
- Granite 4.2 3B vs Inkling 2 Small
- Granite 4.2 8B vs Inkling 2 Small
- Hy-Memory-30B-A3B vs Inkling 2 Small
- Hy3 vs Inkling 2 Small
- Inkling 2 Small vs Inkling-Small
- Inkling 2 Small vs InternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-Preview
- Inkling 2 Small vs Kimi K3
- Inkling 2 Small vs Kimi K3.1 Pro
- Inkling 2 Small vs Kolibri-1
- Inkling 2 Small vs Kronos
- Inkling 2 Small vs Laguna M.1
- Inkling 2 Small vs Laguna S 2.1
- Inkling 2 Small vs Laguna XS 2.1
- Inkling 2 Small vs LBS-27B
- Inkling 2 Small vs LFM2.5-2.6B
- Inkling 2 Small vs LFM3-1.7B
- Inkling 2 Small vs LFM3-Audio-2B
- Inkling 2 Small vs LFM3-Omni-2B
- Inkling 2 Small vs LFM3-VL-2B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Ling-3.0-tiny
- Inkling 2 Small vs Ling-3.1-flash-1019
- Inkling 2 Small vs LongCat-2.5
- Inkling 2 Small vs MiMo-V2.6 Distill Qwen 9B
- Inkling 2 Small vs MiMo-V2.6-Flash-RL
- Inkling 2 Small vs MiniCPM-o 4.5
- Inkling 2 Small vs MiniCPM-V 4.7 1B
- Inkling 2 Small vs MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B
- Inkling 2 Small vs MiniCPM5-2B
- Inkling 2 Small vs MiniMax-M2.5
- Inkling 2 Small vs MiniMax-M2.7
- Inkling 2 Small vs MiniMax-M3.1-Flash
- Inkling 2 Small vs Mistral Large 4
- Inkling 2 Small vs Muse Glimmer 30B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Nanbeige4.2-3B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Nanbeige4.3-33B
- Inkling 2 Small vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Bolt E4B 4GB
- Inkling 2 Small vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Nemotron 3 Nano 4B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning
- Inkling 2 Small vs Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B
- Inkling 2 Small vs North Mini Code 1.0
- Inkling 2 Small vs occamy-1.0
- Inkling 2 Small vs Olmo 3 7B Think
- Inkling 2 Small vs Ornith-1.5-122B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Ornith-1.5-35B-A3B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Ornith-1.5-397B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Ornith-1.5-9B
- Inkling 2 Small vs OTel-2.0-LLM-31B-IT
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen-AgentWorld-35B-A3B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3-4B-Instruct-2507
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3.5-0.8B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3.5-122B-A10B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3.5-2B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3.5-4B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3.5-9B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3.6-27B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3.8-27B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3-Coder-Next
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B-Instruct
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3-VL-2B-Instruct
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3-VL-30B-A3B-Instruct
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3-VL-32B-Instruct
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3-VL-4B-Instruct
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct
- Inkling 2 Small vs Qwopus3.8-27B-Flash-V2
- Inkling 2 Small vs Recursive Flint
- Inkling 2 Small vs Ripple-65B Preview
- Inkling 2 Small vs SenseNova-Loop-9B-Preview
- Inkling 2 Small vs SmolLM3-3B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Spark-X2.6-4B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Step 3.7 Flash
- Inkling 2 Small vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Inkling 2 Small vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
- Inkling 2 Small vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Inkling 2 Small vs Baidu Unlimited-OCR-2
- Inkling 2 Small vs WeVisOne-VL-2B
- Inkling 2 Small vs WeVisOne-VL-4B
- Inkling 2 Small vs ZAYA1-8B
- Inkling vs Inkling 2 Small
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-inkling-2-small.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/granite-4-2-30b.json·/api/v1/tools/inkling-2-small.json - From a terminal
anchor compare granite-4-2-30b inkling-2-small(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "granite-4-2-30b", "b": "inkling-2-small"}at/mcp, no key