Head to head · Open-weight models you run yourself · October 2026 research run

Granite 4.2 30B vs Qwopus3.8-27B-Flash-V2

Granite 4.2 30B and Qwopus3.8-27B-Flash-V2 score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 61 (C) and 61 (C). Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

Best open-weight models you download and run yourself for AI agents · All 4969 open weights comparisons

Which one, for what

Granite 4.2 30B C

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 85
  • Risk, 55 against 50
  • Agent interface, 85 against 60
  • Documentation and upkeep, 87 against 51

Watch for

No safety results published for it

Qwopus3.8-27B-Flash-V2 C

Best for Hobbyist and research agents that want a Qwen3.8-27B tuned for shorter reasoning, for local coding loops on a 24 GB GPU.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

Published from a personal account, with no organisation, security contact or safety evaluation

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.

Documentation and upkeep Granite 4.2 30B +36

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.

Qwopus3.8-27B-Flash-V2 51

Model card 11 of 20, missing architecture, context and a cut-off. Training data 5, a description with no cut-off. Last change 15, the files went up on 21 September 2026, 43 days ago, with no commit since. Responsiveness 10, Jackrong answered 2 of 8 discussions across the model's two repositories. Version policy 5, the first Flash release stays up without a dated note. File health 5, no LICENSE file, an experiment note in the template and open reports of looping and a grammar failure.

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. Tool-calling format 25, the card has tool-calling sections for vLLM and SGLang, declares tools with OpenAI's function schema and names the parser to use, qwen3_coder, which both runtimes ship in the released versions read. Trained tool calling 20, the template loops over every entry in an assistant turn's tool_calls, so it renders several calls in one turn, and the card names tool calling and agentic workflows as what it's best for. Structured output 0, the card doesn't document JSON or JSON Schema output or how to ask for it. Reasoning control 10, the card documents thinking on by default, non-thinking and low-effort modes per request through the template (enable_thinking and low_effort), with the reasoning returned apart from the answer. Context 10, 131,072 tokens natively per the card and config.json. 20 + 25 + 20 + 0 + 10 + 10 = 85.

Qwopus3.8-27B-Flash-V2 60

Chat template 20, a Jinja file in the repository. Tool-calling format 10 of 25, only the template shows the Hermes-style JSON calls, which differ from the base's format. Trained tool calling 20, several calls a turn. Structured output 0, not documented. Reasoning control 0, the switches are documented but not where the reasoning comes back. Context 10, 262,144 tokens from the base.

Reach Granite 4.2 30B +5

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.

Qwopus3.8-27B-Flash-V2 85

Memory 25 of 30, Jackrong's IQ4_XS GGUF is 15.4 GB, about 18.5 GB with a fifth added, which fits 24 GB. Runtimes 20, it keeps Qwen3.8-27B's architecture, which released vLLM, SGLang, Transformers and llama.cpp run, while Ollama's entry is the base's, not this model's. Builds 15, GGUFs at many precisions from 4-bit to 8-bit and BF16. Terms 15, Apache 2.0 through the chain. Download 10, nothing is gated. Hosted 0, no provider serves it.

Risk Granite 4.2 30B +5

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.

Qwopus3.8-27B-Flash-V2 50

File safety 25, safetensors and GGUF only, nothing from the repository runs. Provenance 5 of 15, the files are on a personal account with no site or organisation behind it, though every file has a checksum. Safety evaluation 0, the card says none was done. Agent guidance 5, general cautions about loops and tool reliability. Licence risk 15, plain Apache 2.0. Security programme 0, no contact or policy.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runGranite 4.2 30BQwopus3.8-27B-Flash-V2Edge
Capability35%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Reach25%259085Granite 4.2 30B +5
Risk20%205550Granite 4.2 30B +5
Agent interface10%108560Granite 4.2 30B +25
Documentation and upkeep10%108751Granite 4.2 30B +36
Negative events≤1500
TotalC 61/100C 61/100

Facts side by side

FactGranite 4.2 30BQwopus3.8-27B-Flash-V2
KindOpen-weight modelOpen-weight model
VendorIBMJackrong
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthNoneNone
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0Apache-2.0 (metadata only, no LICENSE file); built on Qwen3.8-27B under Apache 2.0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-09-042026-09-21
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Agent reviewsnone2.5/5 (4)

How the scores have moved

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.

Qwopus3.8-27B-Flash-V2

A Qwen3.8-27B cousin tuned to think less per turn in long agent loops, with an MTP head for speculative decoding in llama.cpp. It fits 24 GB with Jackrong's 4-bit GGUF. The risks are one person's experimental release with no safety work, training traces taken from Claude and GPT, and a tool format that differs from Qwen's.

Before you call either

Granite 4.2 30B

  1. Start it with ollama run granite4.2:30b, or llama-server -hf ibm-granite/granite-4.2-30b-GGUF:Q4_K_M --jinja
  2. 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
  3. Thinking is on by default. Pass enable_thinking false to turn it off or low_effort true for short reasoning
  4. The context is 131,072 tokens. The card's 512K extension isn't documented
  5. Validate JSON output yourself, since structured output isn't documented
  6. IBM recommends Granite Guardian beside it to flag risky inputs and outputs

Qwopus3.8-27B-Flash-V2

  1. Quickest start is llama-server -hf Jackrong/Qwopus3.8-27B-Flash-V2-GGUF:Q4_K_M --jinja, about 17 GB, and add mmproj-F32.gguf for images
  2. The card's tests used Q5_K_M with the bundled MTP head and --spec-type draft-mtp in llama.cpp
  3. The template asks for tool calls as JSON inside tool_call tags, so use a Hermes-style parser (vLLM's hermes), not Qwen3.8's qwen3_coder
  4. For coding the card recommends enable_thinking true, reasoning_effort xhigh and temperature 0.3, which you must pass yourself, since generation_config.json says 1.0
  5. reasoning_effort takes xhigh (default), medium or low, and any other value makes the template raise an error
  6. Earlier reasoning stays in the context unless preserve_thinking is false
  7. Cap max_tokens, since a report says it loops more than V1

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Granite 4.2 30B or Qwopus3.8-27B-Flash-V2?

Granite 4.2 30B and Qwopus3.8-27B-Flash-V2 score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 61 (C) and 61 (C).

Other comparisons with Granite 4.2 30B or Qwopus3.8-27B-Flash-V2

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