# Granite 4.2 8B vs Nanbeige4.2-3B (slim)

> Granite 4.2 8B and Nanbeige4.2-3B 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-4-2-8b-vs-nanbeige-4-2-3b.md (~9,000 tokens) · this version ~580 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-4-2-8b-vs-nanbeige-4-2-3b.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-4-2-8b-vs-nanbeige-4-2-3b
- 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
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Granite 4.2 8B and Nanbeige4.2-3B 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 8B: C 61, rank #66 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/granite-4-2-8b.min.md
- Nanbeige4.2-3B: C 61, rank #78 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nanbeige-4-2-3b.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 85; Documentation and upkeep, 92 against 72.
- Nanbeige4.2-3B, good for Local agents that need tool calling and a long context on a laptop or a small GPU

| Category | Granite 4.2 8B | Nanbeige4.2-3B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 95 | 85 |
| Risk (20%) | 55 | 55 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 85 | 85 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 92 | 72 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Granite 4.2 8B | Nanbeige4.2-3B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | IBM | Nanbeige LLM Lab (BOSS Zhipin) |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 (Hub metadata only; the repository has no LICENSE file) |
| Last release | 2026-10-20 | 2026-09-11 |

Why the edge:
- Documentation and upkeep, Granite 4.2 8B +20: 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…); Nanbeige4.2-3B 72 (Model card 17, Intended use, limitations, the architecture, the parameters (3B outside the embeddings), the context and the languages (in the metadata) are on t…)
- Reach, Granite 4.2 8B +10: 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.); Nanbeige4.2-3B 85 (Memory 30, the smallest build from Nanbeige is the FP8 repository (the 8-bit GPTQ one is the same size), 5.19 GB, and 5.19 GB × 1.2 = 6.2 GB, within 16 GB.)