Noometry

Model comparison

Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Granite 4.2 30b

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.9 to 41.8 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 Anthropic

61.9

Rank #10 Confirmed

Granite 4.2 30b IBM

41.8

Rank #130 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher in 7 categories and Granite 4.2 30b in 0 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in knowledge, where Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads 66.0 to 39.1.
  • Granite 4.2 30b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Claude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 30b
ProviderAnthropicIBM
Noometry Index61.941.8
Released2026-09-28—
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1M—
Max output128K—
Input $ / M tokens$2—
Output $ / M tokens$10—
Results tracked3211

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Category by category

Coding Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 67.3 (#6), Granite 4.2 30b: 41.0 (#126)

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 30b
LMArena Coding15131396
FrontierCode52.1%—
CursorBench55.5%—
LMArena WebDev1774—
FrontierSWE61.9%—
SciCode61%—
ALE-Bench1,819—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.0 (#16), Granite 4.2 30b: —

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 30b
APEX-Agents75.5%—

Reasoning Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 54.0 (#28), Granite 4.2 30b: 27.8 (#112)

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 30b
LMArena Hard Prompts14951374
NYT Connections (extended)80.5%—
CritPt31.4%—
Mystery Game Puzzles65%—
Epoch Capabilities Index165.03—

Math Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 87.9 (#6), Granite 4.2 30b: —

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 30b
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)88.8%—
FrontierMath Tier 480.5%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025100%—
ProofBench100%—
LMArena Math1510—
FrontierMath Erdős2.9%—

Knowledge Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#12), Granite 4.2 30b: 39.1 (#138)

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 30b
LMArena Expert15401406
GPQA Diamond95.6%—
SimpleQA Verified46.5%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 51.5 (#6), Granite 4.2 30b: —

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 30b
LMArena Vision1289—
Furniture Assembly75%—

Multilingual Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 55.3 (#30), Granite 4.2 30b: 47.3 (#151)

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 30b
LMArena Non-English14521340
LMArena Chinese15221414
LMArena Russian14511343

Instruction Following Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 78.3 (#11), Granite 4.2 30b: 71.2 (#155)

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 30b
LMArena Instruction Following14951347

Long Context Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.9 (#28), Granite 4.2 30b: 41.4 (#140)

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 30b
LMArena Longer Query14981359

Writing & Preference Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#40), Granite 4.2 30b: 53.8 (#156)

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Granite 4.2 30b
LMArena Text14711361
LMArena Creative Writing14651288
LMArena Multi-Turn14741339

Frequently asked questions

Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 better than Granite 4.2 30b?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.9 to 41.8 on the Noometry Index.

Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Granite 4.2 30b better for coding?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 67.3 versus 41.0 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Granite 4.2 30b share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Claude Sonnet 5.5 has 32 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 30b has 11.

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