Model comparison

gpt-oss-120b vs Granite 4.2 30b

Granite 4.2 30b is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.4 to 36.0 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.

gpt-oss-120b OpenAI

36.0

Rank #210 Confirmed

Granite 4.2 30b IBM

41.4

Rank #126 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. gpt-oss-120b scores higher in 2 categories and Granite 4.2 30b in 5 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in long context, where Granite 4.2 30b leads 41.4 to 31.4.

Side by side

gpt-oss-120b and Granite 4.2 30b specifications
gpt-oss-120bGranite 4.2 30b
ProviderOpenAIIBM
Noometry Index36.041.4
Released2025-08-05—
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window131K—
Max output41K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.037—
Output $ / M tokens$0.17—
Results tracked4811

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Category by category

Coding Granite 4.2 30b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 33.2 (#251), Granite 4.2 30b: 40.4 (#127)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Coding13801394
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)26%—
Aider Polyglot41.8%—
SciCode36%—
WeirdML48.2%—
ALE-Bench575.62—
AlgoTune1.41—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

gpt-oss-120b: 12.1 (#145), Granite 4.2 30b: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 4.2 30b
Terminal-Bench18.7%—
APEX-Agents4.4%—
METR Time Horizons56.6%—
Vending-Bench 2-21.53—

Reasoning Granite 4.2 30b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 19.5 (#236), Granite 4.2 30b: 26.7 (#114)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Hard Prompts13641375
SimpleBench22.1%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark58.6%—
CritPt1.1%—
Chess Puzzles20%—
Mystery Game Puzzles2%—
DTBench76.3%—
LMCA22.1%—
Surface Evolver Bench25%—
Epoch Capabilities Index139.94—

Math Not comparable

gpt-oss-120b: 50.6 (#43), Granite 4.2 30b: —

Math benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 4.2 30b
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202588.9%—
Omni-MATH68.8%—
LMArena Math1388—

Knowledge gpt-oss-120b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 42.3 (#89), Granite 4.2 30b: 38.5 (#134)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Expert13561405
GPQA Diamond75.8%—
MMLU-Pro79.5%—
Confabulations15.7%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate14.2%—
GPQA (HELM)68.4%—

Multilingual Too close to call

gpt-oss-120b: 48.2 (#142), Granite 4.2 30b: 47.4 (#146)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Non-English13501340
LMArena Chinese13841415
LMArena Russian13431342
LMArena French1370—
LMArena German1355—
LMArena Japanese1332—
LMArena Korean1283—
LMArena Spanish1388—

Instruction Following Granite 4.2 30b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 69.5 (#168), Granite 4.2 30b: 71.3 (#150)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Instruction Following13181346
IFEval83.6%—

Long Context Granite 4.2 30b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 31.4 (#273), Granite 4.2 30b: 41.4 (#135)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Longer Query13191359
Fiction.LiveBench44.4%—

Writing & Preference Granite 4.2 30b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 46.7 (#213), Granite 4.2 30b: 54.3 (#147)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bGranite 4.2 30b
LMArena Text13661363
LMArena Creative Writing12741294
LMArena Multi-Turn13401340
Short-Story Creative Writing77.1%—
EQ-Bench Creative Writing961—
WildBench84.5%—

Frequently asked questions

Is gpt-oss-120b better than Granite 4.2 30b?

Granite 4.2 30b is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.4 to 36.0 on the Noometry Index.

Is gpt-oss-120b or Granite 4.2 30b better for coding?

Granite 4.2 30b scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.4 versus 33.2 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do gpt-oss-120b and Granite 4.2 30b share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. gpt-oss-120b has 48 scored results on Noometry and Granite 4.2 30b has 11.

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