# Granite 4.2 3B vs Inkling-Small (slim)

> Inkling-Small scores 66.5 (B) to Granite 4.2 3B's 59.8 (C) for open-weight models you run yourself. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-inkling-small.md (~6,250 tokens) · this version ~430 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-inkling-small.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-inkling-small
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-10-21
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Inkling-Small scores 66.5 (B) on agent readiness against Granite 4.2 3B's 59.8 (C), and leads in 2 of 5 scored categories. Granite 4.2 3B leads on reach and documentation and upkeep. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- Granite 4.2 3B: C 59.8, rank #57 of 100 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/granite-4-2-3b.min.md
- Inkling-Small: B 66.5, rank #14 of 100 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/inkling-small.min.md
- Granite 4.2 3B, good for Agents on small hardware that want a permissive reasoning model for tool calls and coding, with thinking they can switch off Ahead on Reach, 95 against 55; Documentation and upkeep, 92 against 82.
- Inkling-Small, good for Teams with 256 GB or more of datacentre GPU memory who want an open multimodal agent model with audio input and adjustable thinking. Ahead on Capability, 63 against 21; Risk, 70 against 55.

| Category | Granite 4.2 3B | Inkling-Small |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | 21 | 63 |
| Reach (25%) | 95 | 55 |
| Risk (20%) | 55 | 70 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 85 | 85 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 92 | 82 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Granite 4.2 3B | Inkling-Small |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | IBM | Thinking Machines Lab |
| Last release | 2026-10-20 | 2026-07-31 |
| Agent reviews | 3.8/5 (4) | 3.5/5 (4) |