# Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3.5-0.8B (slim)

> Granite 4.2 30B scores 61 (C) to Qwen3.5-0.8B's 46.7 (D) for open-weight models you run yourself. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-qwen3-5-0-8b.md (~9,200 tokens) · this version ~680 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-qwen3-5-0-8b.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-qwen3-5-0-8b
- 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 30B scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against Qwen3.5-0.8B's 46.7 (D), and leads in 3 of 4 scored categories. 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
- Qwen3.5-0.8B: D 46.7, rank #156 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/qwen3-5-0-8b.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; Agent interface, 85 against 60; Documentation and upkeep, 87 against 37.
- Qwen3.5-0.8B, good for Builders who want a near-free local helper or fine-tuning base for narrow tasks on a phone-class device, laptop or CPU

| Category | Granite 4.2 30B | Qwen3.5-0.8B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 90 | 80 |
| Risk (20%) | 55 | 55 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 85 | 60 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 87 | 37 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Granite 4.2 30B | Qwen3.5-0.8B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen team) |
| Last release | 2026-09-04 | 2026-03-02 |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.8/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- Documentation and upkeep, Granite 4.2 30B +50: 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…); Qwen3.5-0.8B 37 (The card covers six of the seven items, missing only a cut-off (17), because it states the intended uses and warns about thinking loops.)
- Agent interface, Granite 4.2 30B +25: 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.); Qwen3.5-0.8B 60 (The template ships in the repository (20) and the model was trained for tool use with several calls per turn in the template (20).)
- 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.); Qwen3.5-0.8B 80 (Memory earns the full 30, since LM Studio's Q4_K_M build with its projector is 0.73 GB (0.88 GB with the fifth added) and Ollama's Q8_0 build was 1.0 GB, both f…)