Granite 4.2 30B vs Grok 4.6
Model Markets Rankings
Intelligence, Cost, and Efficiency
| Ranking | Granite 4.2 30B | Grok 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| CostLower is better · Published-token output estimate | UnrankedNot in the 36-model eligible cohort | #18 of 36$0.097 per LiveBench case |
Ranks come from the current complete eligible cohorts. Green highlights appear only when both models are ranked in the same metric. Missing required inputs remain unranked, and the three dimensions are not collapsed into an overall winner.
Benchmark Performance
Available Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30B | Grok 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text Arenatext-2026-09-01-011508720696 · arena_rating · leader | 1,362.5594% of row best · rating · granite-4.2-30b; 95% CI [1351.93384890, 1373.17607017]; votes 3287; rank 177 | 1,443.75100% of row best · rating · grok-4.6-high; 95% CI [1433.62910542, 1453.86294509]; votes 3453; rank 55 |
| Overall ResultCounted from the protocol-matched rows above | 0 benchmark wins | 1 benchmark winOverall lead |
Third-party benchmark Only like-for-like primary-publisher results are shown; raw scores, relative scores, configuration, and token spend remain visible.
Technical Differences
Side-by-Side Facts
| Field | Granite 4.2 30B | Grok 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | IBM | xAI |
| Family | Granite 4 2 | Grok 4 |
| Model | Granite 4.2 30B | Grok 4.6 |
| Version | Granite 4.2 30B | Grok 4.6 |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2026-08-25 | Unknown |
| Knowledge cutoff | Unknown | 2026-02-01 |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
| Output modalities | Text | Text |
| Context window | 131K | 500K |
| Total parameters | 29.3B | Unknown |
| Active parameters | Unknown | Unknown |
| License | apache-2.0 | Unknown |
| Open weights | Yes | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No |
| Provider access | Deepinfra (Standard) | Xai (Standard) |
| Capabilities | chat, generation, reasoning, structured_outputs, tools | chat, generation, reasoning, tools |
13 comparable fields · 10 material differences · Pair passes the primary-source comparison gate
Granite 4.2 30B Capabilities
Grok 4.6 Capabilities
Internal Comparison Graph
Related Comparisons
| A | Pair | B | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| vs | Grok 4.5xAI | cross-developer peerstext | |
| vs |  GPT-6 AstraOpenAI | cross-developer peerstext | |
Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic | vs | cross-developer peerstext | |
 Gemini 3.1 ProGoogle DeepMind | vs | cross-developer peerstext | |
 DeepSeek-V4-ProDeepSeek | vs | cross-developer peerstext | |
| vs |  Qwen3.8-MaxQwen | cross-developer peerstext | |
| vs |  Kimi-K3Moonshot AI | cross-developer peerstext | |
 MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs | cross-developer peerstext | |
| vs |  GLM-5.3Z.ai | cross-developer peerstext | |
| vs |  Hy4 previewTencent | cross-developer peerstext | |
Seed 2.1 ProByteDance Seed | vs | cross-developer peerstext | |
| vs |  Mistral Large 3Mistral AI | cross-developer peerstext |
Primary Evidence
Sources and Freshness
Questions
Granite 4.2 30B vs Grok 4.6 FAQs
Is Granite 4.2 30B or Grok 4.6 better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both Granite 4.2 30B and Grok 4.6, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.
Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 30B or Grok 4.6?+
Granite 4.2 30B is $0.16 and Grok 4.6 is $2.00 per million tokens, so Granite 4.2 30B is cheaper on this metric. Granite 4.2 30B is $0.65 and Grok 4.6 is $6.00 per million tokens, so Granite 4.2 30B is cheaper on this metric.
Which has a larger context window, Granite 4.2 30B or Grok 4.6?+
Grok 4.6 has the larger sourced context window. Granite 4.2 30B supports 131K and Grok 4.6 supports 500K.
Which performs better in benchmarks, Granite 4.2 30B or Grok 4.6?+
There is no overall benchmark winner: At least two independently verified, protocol-matched benchmarks are required for an overall winner.
Can Granite 4.2 30B or Grok 4.6 be self-hosted?+
Granite 4.2 30B is the only model in this pair currently marked as self-hostable. Granite 4.2 30B is open weight; Grok 4.6 is not marked open weight.
Can Granite 4.2 30B and Grok 4.6 understand images?+
Granite 4.2 30B is not documented with image input; Grok 4.6 is documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.
Which can generate longer answers, Granite 4.2 30B or Grok 4.6?+
Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. Granite 4.2 30B is — and Grok 4.6 is —.
Do Granite 4.2 30B and Grok 4.6 support reasoning and tool use?+
Granite 4.2 30B: reasoning and tool calling. Grok 4.6: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Feature support does not establish relative quality.
Which is available from more inference providers, Granite 4.2 30B or Grok 4.6?+
Granite 4.2 30B has 1 sourced provider route; Grok 4.6 has 1, a tie.
Which offers better value, Granite 4.2 30B or Grok 4.6?+
There is no universal value winner. Compare the input and output prices above with the matched benchmark result for your workload: cheaper tokens can be offset by different quality, token usage, latency, or provider availability.