# Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B-Instruct (slim)

> Granite 4.2 30B scores 61 (C) to Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B-Instruct's 41.8 (E) 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-omni-30b-a3b-instruct.md (~10,750 tokens) · this version ~680 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-qwen3-omni-30b-a3b-instruct.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-qwen3-omni-30b-a3b-instruct
- 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 scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B-Instruct's 41.8 (E), 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-Omni-30B-A3B-Instruct: E 41.8, rank #158 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/qwen3-omni-30b-a3b-instruct.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 55; Agent interface, 85 against 60; Documentation and upkeep, 87 against 26.
- Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B-Instruct, good for Agents on a machine with about 96 GB to spare that need one local model to hear, see and answer by voice

| Category | Granite 4.2 30B | Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B-Instruct |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 90 | 55 |
| Risk (20%) | 55 | 55 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 85 | 60 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 87 | 26 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Granite 4.2 30B | Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B-Instruct |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen team) |
| Last release | 2026-09-04 | 2025-09-22 |
| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- Documentation and upkeep, Granite 4.2 30B +61: 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-Omni-30B-A3B-Instruct 26 (Model card 11, intended use, architecture, parameters and languages are there, limitations, context and a cut-off aren't.)
- Reach, Granite 4.2 30B +35: 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-Omni-30B-A3B-Instruct 55 (Memory earns 10, because the only build is the 70.5 GB BF16 checkpoint, about 85 GB with a fifth added, which fits only the reference machine's band.)
- 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-Omni-30B-A3B-Instruct 60 (Chat template 20, a Jinja file in the repository.)