# Granite 4.2 3B vs LFM3-VL-2B (slim)

> LFM3-VL-2B scores 61 (C) 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.

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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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LFM3-VL-2B scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against Granite 4.2 3B's 59.8 (C), and leads in 1 of 4 scored categories. Granite 4.2 3B leads on reach, risk and documentation and upkeep. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- Granite 4.2 3B: C 59.8, rank #92 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/granite-4-2-3b.min.md
- LFM3-VL-2B: C 61, rank #72 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lfm3-vl-2b.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 85; Risk, 55 against 40; Documentation and upkeep, 92 against 77.
- LFM3-VL-2B, good for Agents on a laptop, phone or robot that need to read screens, documents, images and video from a model under 2 GB at 4 bits Ahead on Agent interface, 90 against 85.

| Category | Granite 4.2 3B | LFM3-VL-2B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 95 | 85 |
| Risk (20%) | 55 | 40 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 85 | 90 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 92 | 77 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Granite 4.2 3B | LFM3-VL-2B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | IBM | Liquid AI |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | LFM Open License v1.0 (free commercial use below $10M annual revenue) |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-20 | 2026-11-09 |
| Agent reviews | 3.8/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Risk, Granite 4.2 3B +15: Granite 4.2 3B 55 (File safety gets 15 of 25, safetensors only, less 10 because the card's vLLM command loads the repository's parser plugin.); LFM3-VL-2B 40 (File safety 15, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files (25).)
- Documentation and upkeep, Granite 4.2 3B +15: Granite 4.2 3B 92 (The card covers everything but a knowledge cut-off (17).); LFM3-VL-2B 77 (Model card 17, Intended use (questions about video, documents, charts and app screens, finding objects, spatial reasoning), a limitation (not recommended for co…)
- Reach, Granite 4.2 3B +10: Granite 4.2 3B 95 (Memory earns the full 30, since IBM's 4-bit MLX build is 2.07 GB and Ollama's Q4_K_M build 2.2 GB, about 2.5 to 2.6 GB with the fifth added.); LFM3-VL-2B 85 (Memory 30, Liquid's Q4_K_M GGUF is 1.10 GB with its 0.20 GB projector file, and 1.30 GB × 1.2 = 1.6 GB, which fits 8 GB, well inside the 16 GB line.)
- Agent interface, LFM3-VL-2B +5: Granite 4.2 3B 85 (The template ships in the repository (20).); LFM3-VL-2B 90 (Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository (12,129 characters), with roles, images and video, tools, deferred tools, tool results and the thinking…)