Granite 4.2 30B vs Kimi K3
Model Markets Rankings
Intelligence, Cost, and Efficiency
| Ranking | Granite 4.2 30B | Kimi-K3 |
|---|---|---|
| CostLower is better · Published-token output estimate | UnrankedNot in the 36-model eligible cohort | #24 of 36$0.194 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 | Kimi-K3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text Arenatext-2026-09-01-011508720696 · arena_rating · leader | 1,362.5592% of row best · rating · granite-4.2-30b; 95% CI [1351.93384890, 1373.17607017]; votes 3287; rank 177 | 1,476.31100% of row best · rating · kimi-k3-max; 95% CI [1470.86166728, 1481.76254962]; votes 17895; rank 16 |
| 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 | Kimi-K3 |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | IBM | Moonshot AI |
| Family | Granite 4 2 | Kimi K3 |
| Model | Granite 4.2 30B | Kimi-K3 |
| Version | Granite 4.2 30B | Kimi-K3 |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2026-08-25 | 2026-07-16 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Unknown | Unknown |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
| Output modalities | Text | Text |
| Context window | 131K | 1,049K |
| Total parameters | 29.3B | 2.8T |
| Active parameters | Unknown | 104B |
| License | apache-2.0 | other |
| Open weights | Yes | Yes |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Provider access | Deepinfra (Standard) | Deepinfra (Standard), Fireworks Ai (Standard), Hugging Face (Standard), Openrouter (Standard), Together Ai (Standard) |
| Capabilities | chat, generation, reasoning, structured_outputs, tools | chat, generation, reasoning |
16 comparable fields · 11 material differences · Pair passes the primary-source comparison gate
Granite 4.2 30B Capabilities
Kimi K3 Capabilities
Internal Comparison Graph
Related Comparisons
| A | Pair | B | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| vs | Kimi-K2.6Moonshot AI | 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 | Grok 4.6xAI | cross-developer peerstext | |
| vs |  Qwen3.8-MaxQwen | 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 Kimi K3 FAQs
Is Granite 4.2 30B or Kimi K3 better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both Granite 4.2 30B and Kimi K3, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.
Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 30B or Kimi K3?+
Granite 4.2 30B is $0.16 and Kimi K3 is $2.85 per million tokens, so Granite 4.2 30B is cheaper on this metric. Granite 4.2 30B is $0.65 and Kimi K3 is $14.25 per million tokens, so Granite 4.2 30B is cheaper on this metric.
Which has a larger context window, Granite 4.2 30B or Kimi K3?+
Kimi K3 has the larger sourced context window. Granite 4.2 30B supports 131K and Kimi K3 supports 1,049K.
Which performs better in benchmarks, Granite 4.2 30B or Kimi K3?+
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 Kimi K3 be self-hosted?+
Both models have the same recorded self-hosting status: supported. Granite 4.2 30B is open weight; Kimi K3 is open weight.
Can Granite 4.2 30B and Kimi K3 understand images?+
Granite 4.2 30B is not documented with image input; Kimi K3 is documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.
Which can generate longer answers, Granite 4.2 30B or Kimi K3?+
Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. Granite 4.2 30B is — and Kimi K3 is —.
Do Granite 4.2 30B and Kimi K3 support reasoning and tool use?+
Granite 4.2 30B: reasoning and tool calling. Kimi K3: reasoning and image input. Feature support does not establish relative quality.
Which is available from more inference providers, Granite 4.2 30B or Kimi K3?+
Granite 4.2 30B has 1 sourced provider route; Kimi K3 has 5, so Kimi K3 has broader tracked availability.
Which offers better value, Granite 4.2 30B or Kimi K3?+
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.