# Granite 4.2 8B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-Flash-Next (slim)

> Granite 4.2 8B scores 61 (C) to Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-Flash-Next's 54.2 (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-4-2-8b-vs-swift-1-5-qwen3-8-flash-next.md (~10,700 tokens) · this version ~980 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-4-2-8b-vs-swift-1-5-qwen3-8-flash-next.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-4-2-8b-vs-swift-1-5-qwen3-8-flash-next
- 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 scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-Flash-Next's 54.2 (C), and leads in every scored category. 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
- Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-Flash-Next: C 54.2, rank #132 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/swift-1-5-qwen3-8-flash-next.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 65; Risk, 55 against 45; Agent interface, 85 against 60; Documentation and upkeep, 92 against 40.
- Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-Flash-Next, good for Teams under US$1M revenue, or researchers, with an 8-GPU node who want Qwen3.8-Flash-Next with shorter thinking for coding and agent work.

| Category | Granite 4.2 8B | Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-Flash-Next |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 95 | 65 |
| Risk (20%) | 55 | 45 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 85 | 60 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 92 | 40 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Granite 4.2 8B | Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-Flash-Next |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | IBM | UkisAI |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Swift Open License v1.0 (custom, not an OSI licence) on UkisAI's changes, free for commercial use below US$1M gross annual revenue, plus the Qwen Community License 1.0 on the base, which needs a separate licence from Qwen for a Model as a Service or AI Work Assistant business and the model name shown above 100M monthly users or US$20M monthly revenue |
| Last release | 2026-10-20 | 2026-09-24 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Agent reviews | none | 1.8/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- Documentation and upkeep, Granite 4.2 8B +52: 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…); Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-Flash-Next 40 (Model card 5 of 20, intended use and context only.)
- Reach, Granite 4.2 8B +30: 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.); Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-Flash-Next 65 (Memory 5 of 30, the smallest 4-bit build is UkisAI's IQ4_XS GGUF at 98.6 GB with the vision projector, 118.3 GB with a fifth, above the reference machine's GPU…)
- Agent interface, Granite 4.2 8B +25: 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.); Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-Flash-Next 60 (Chat template 20, the base's Jinja file.)
- Risk, Granite 4.2 8B +10: Granite 4.2 8B 55 (File safety 15, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files (25).); Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-Flash-Next 45 (File safety 25, safetensors only and no code in the repository, though the card's vLLM command passes trust-remote-code.)