# Granite 4.2 8B vs LongCat-2.5 (slim)

> Granite 4.2 8B scores 61 (C) to LongCat-2.5's 50.5 (D) 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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Granite 4.2 8B scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against LongCat-2.5's 50.5 (D), and leads in 3 of 4 scored categories. LongCat-2.5 leads on risk. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- Granite 4.2 8B: C 61, rank #66 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/granite-4-2-8b.min.md
- LongCat-2.5: D 50.5, rank #145 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/longcat-2-5.min.md
- Granite 4.2 8B, good for Agents that want a documented, signed, Apache 2.0 reasoning model with tool calling on a 16 GB machine Ahead on Reach, 95 against 35; Agent interface, 85 against 75; Documentation and upkeep, 92 against 46.
- LongCat-2.5, good for Operators with NPU clusters, and anyone tracking what the open flagships can do Ahead on Risk, 60 against 55.

| Category | Granite 4.2 8B | LongCat-2.5 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 95 | 35 |
| Risk (20%) | 55 | 60 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 85 | 75 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 92 | 46 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Granite 4.2 8B | LongCat-2.5 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | IBM | Meituan (LongCat) |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Last release | 2026-10-20 | 2026-11-10 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | not read yet |

Why the edge:
- Reach, Granite 4.2 8B +60: Granite 4.2 8B 95 (Memory 30, IBM's own 4-bit MLX build granite-4.2-8b-q4-mlx is 4.95 GB, and 4.95 GB × 1.2 = 5.9 GB, within 8 GB.); LongCat-2.5 35 (Memory 0, the smallest build is Meituan's W4A4 repository, 1,336 GB, and 1,336 GB × 1.2 = 1,603 GB, far above 256 GB.)
- Documentation and upkeep, Granite 4.2 8B +46: Granite 4.2 8B 92 (Model card 17, Intended use (best for), limitations (ethical considerations and limitations), architecture, parameters (8B), context length (128K native) and 12…); LongCat-2.5 46 (Model card 11, Intended use, limitations (the usage considerations), the architecture and the parameter counts are on the card.)
- Agent interface, Granite 4.2 8B +10: Granite 4.2 8B 85 (Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository, with roles, tools, tool responses, the thinking switch and low effort.); LongCat-2.5 75 (Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository (11,823 characters), with a copy in tokenizer_config.json.)
- Risk, LongCat-2.5 +5: Granite 4.2 8B 55 (File safety 15, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files (25).); LongCat-2.5 60 (File safety 25, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files and no Python in the repository.)