# Granite 4.2 30B vs Spark-X2.6-4B (slim)

> Granite 4.2 30B and Spark-X2.6-4B 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-spark-x2-6-4b.md (~9,600 tokens) · this version ~730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-spark-x2-6-4b.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-spark-x2-6-4b
- 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 and Spark-X2.6-4B 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
- Spark-X2.6-4B: C 61, rank #56 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/spark-x2-6-4b.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 85; Risk, 55 against 50; Agent interface, 85 against 70; Documentation and upkeep, 87 against 51.
- Spark-X2.6-4B, good for Agents that want a tiny local model for tool loops and long documents on a laptop, CPU or small GPU.

| Category | Granite 4.2 30B | Spark-X2.6-4B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 90 | 85 |
| Risk (20%) | 55 | 50 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 85 | 70 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 87 | 51 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Granite 4.2 30B | Spark-X2.6-4B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | IBM | SparkLLM (XHToken) |
| Last release | 2026-09-04 | 2026-10-20 |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- 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 1…); Spark-X2.6-4B 51 (Model card 11 of 20, intended use, parameters, context and languages, with no limitations, cut-off or architecture description of its own.)
- Agent interface, Granite 4.2 30B +15: 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.); Spark-X2.6-4B 70 (Chat template 20, a Jinja file in the repository.)
- 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.); Spark-X2.6-4B 85 (Memory 30, SparkLLM's Q4_K_M GGUF is 3.19 GB, about 3.8 GB with a fifth added, which fits 8 GB.)
- Risk, Granite 4.2 30B +5: Granite 4.2 30B 55 (File safety 15, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files (25).); Spark-X2.6-4B 50 (File safety 15 of 25, safetensors and GGUF only, but the card's Transformers and vLLM routes run the repository's Python.)