Granite 4.2 30B vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B
Benchmark Performance
Available Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30B | NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text Arenatext-2026-09-01-011508720696 · arena_rating · leader | 1,362.55100% of row best · rating · granite-4.2-30b; 95% CI [1351.93384890, 1373.17607017]; votes 3287; rank 177 | 1,331.8498% of row best · rating · nvidia-nemotron-3.5-lightning-30b-a3b-nvfp4; 95% CI [1322.39322537, 1341.28358716]; votes 4533; rank 207 |
| Overall ResultCounted from the protocol-matched rows above | 1 benchmark winOverall lead | 0 benchmark wins |
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 | NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | IBM | NVIDIA |
| Family | Granite 4 2 | Nvidia Nemotron 3 5 Lightning |
| Model | Granite 4.2 30B | NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B |
| Version | Granite 4.2 30B | NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | 2026-08-25 | 2026-08-11 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Unknown | Unknown |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
| Output modalities | Text | Text |
| Context window | 131,072 | 1,048,576 |
| Total parameters | 29,276,770,304 | 30,000,000,000 |
| Active parameters | Unknown | 3,000,000,000 |
| License | apache-2.0 | openmdw-1.1 |
| Open weights | Yes | Yes |
| API available | Yes | Unknown |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Provider access | Deepinfra (Standard), Hugging Face (Standard) | Fireworks Ai (Standard) |
| Capabilities | chat, generation, reasoning, structured_outputs, tools | agents, chat, generation, reasoning, tools |
15 comparable fields · 10 material differences · Pair passes the primary-source comparison gate
Granite 4.2 30B Capabilities
NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B Capabilities
Internal Comparison Graph
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Primary Evidence
Sources and Freshness
Questions
Granite 4.2 30B vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B FAQs
Is Granite 4.2 30B or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both Granite 4.2 30B and NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.
Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 30B or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B?+
Only Granite 4.2 30B has a directly sourced input price: $0.16 per million tokens. Only Granite 4.2 30B has a directly sourced output price: $0.65 per million tokens.
Which has a larger context window, Granite 4.2 30B or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B?+
NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B has the larger sourced context window. Granite 4.2 30B supports 131,072 and NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B supports 1,048,576.
Which performs better in benchmarks, Granite 4.2 30B or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B?+
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 NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B be self-hosted?+
Both models have the same recorded self-hosting status: supported. Granite 4.2 30B is open weight; NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B is open weight.
Can Granite 4.2 30B and NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B understand images?+
Granite 4.2 30B is not documented with image input; NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B is not documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.
Which can generate longer answers, Granite 4.2 30B or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B?+
Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. Granite 4.2 30B is — and NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B is —.
Do Granite 4.2 30B and NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B support reasoning and tool use?+
Granite 4.2 30B: reasoning and tool calling. NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B: reasoning and tool calling. Feature support does not establish relative quality.
Which is available from more inference providers, Granite 4.2 30B or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B?+
Granite 4.2 30B has 2 sourced provider routes; NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B has 1, so Granite 4.2 30B has broader tracked availability.
Which offers better value, Granite 4.2 30B or NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B?+
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.