# Granite 4.2 30B vs ZAYA1-8B (slim)

> Granite 4.2 30B and ZAYA1-8B 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.

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- 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 ZAYA1-8B 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
- ZAYA1-8B: C 61, rank #85 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zaya1-8b.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 50.
- ZAYA1-8B, good for People who want a small, fast reasoning model for maths and code and can live without tool calling

| Category | Granite 4.2 30B | ZAYA1-8B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 90 | 80 |
| Risk (20%) | 55 | 55 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 85 | 60 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 87 | 50 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Granite 4.2 30B | ZAYA1-8B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | IBM | Zyphra |
| Last release | 2026-09-04 | 2026-07-02 |

Why the edge:
- Documentation and upkeep, Granite 4.2 30B +37: 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…); ZAYA1-8B 50 (Model card 5, Intended use and the parameter counts are on the card.)
- 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.); ZAYA1-8B 60 (Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository (10,700 characters).)
- 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.); ZAYA1-8B 80 (Memory 30, the smallest build from Zyphra is the MXFP4-Experts repository, 5.85 GB, and 5.85 GB × 1.2 = 7.0 GB, within 16 GB.)
