# Granite 4.2 30B vs LFM3-Audio-2B (slim)

> Granite 4.2 30B and LFM3-Audio-2B 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/granite-4-2-30b-vs-lfm3-audio-2b.md (~9,300 tokens) · this version ~680 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-lfm3-audio-2b.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-lfm3-audio-2b
- 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
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Granite 4.2 30B and LFM3-Audio-2B score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 61 (C) and 61 (C). Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- Granite 4.2 30B: C 61, rank #65 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/granite-4-2-30b.min.md
- LFM3-Audio-2B: C 61, rank #70 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lfm3-audio-2b.min.md
- 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 80; Risk, 55 against 40; Documentation and upkeep, 87 against 52.
- LFM3-Audio-2B, good for Voice agents on a laptop or phone that need speech in, speech out and tool calls from one small model

| Category | Granite 4.2 30B | LFM3-Audio-2B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 90 | 80 |
| Risk (20%) | 55 | 40 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 85 | 85 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 87 | 52 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Granite 4.2 30B | LFM3-Audio-2B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | IBM | Liquid AI |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | LFM Open License v1.0 (free commercial use below $10M annual revenue) |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-04 | 2026-11-03 |

Why the edge:
- Documentation and upkeep, Granite 4.2 30B +35: 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…); LFM3-Audio-2B 52 (Model card 17, Intended use (local agents, tool calling, structured outputs, fine-tuning), limitations (not recommended for agentic coding or complex multi-step…)
- Risk, Granite 4.2 30B +15: Granite 4.2 30B 55 (File safety 15, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files (25).); LFM3-Audio-2B 40 (File safety 15, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files (25).)
- Reach, Granite 4.2 30B +10: 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.); LFM3-Audio-2B 80 (Memory 30, Liquid's Q4_K_M GGUF is 1.10 GB with its 0.17 GB projector file, and 1.27 GB × 1.2 = 1.5 GB, which fits 8 GB, well inside the 16 GB line.)