Model comparison

Granite 4.2 30b vs Inkling-Small

Inkling-Small is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.5 to 41.8 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.

Granite 4.2 30b IBM

41.8

Rank #130 Confirmed

Inkling-Small Thinking Machines Lab

46.5

Rank #63 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 30b scores higher in 0 categories and Inkling-Small in 7 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Inkling-Small leads 38.6 to 27.8.

Side by side

Granite 4.2 30b and Inkling-Small specifications
Granite 4.2 30bInkling-Small
ProviderIBMThinking Machines Lab
Noometry Index41.846.5
Released—2026-07-15
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window—524K
Max output—1.05M
Input $ / M tokens—$0.45
Output $ / M tokens—$1.20
Results tracked1133

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Category by category

Coding Inkling-Small leads

Granite 4.2 30b: 41.0 (#126), Inkling-Small: 43.6 (#85)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 30bInkling-Small
LMArena Coding13961451
LMArena WebDev—1409
SciCode—48.7%

Reasoning Inkling-Small leads

Granite 4.2 30b: 27.8 (#112), Inkling-Small: 38.6 (#63)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 30bInkling-Small
LMArena Hard Prompts13741423
ARC-AGI-2—40.1%
ARC-AGI-1—84%
CritPt—8.3%
Chess Puzzles—18%
Mystery Game Puzzles—6%
Epoch Capabilities Index—150.15

Math Not comparable

Granite 4.2 30b: —, Inkling-Small: 45.1 (#77)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 30bInkling-Small
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)—46.3%
FrontierMath Tier 4—17.1%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025—90%
ProofBench—6%
LMArena Math—1459

Knowledge Inkling-Small leads

Granite 4.2 30b: 39.1 (#138), Inkling-Small: 48.2 (#77)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 30bInkling-Small
LMArena Expert14061442
GPQA Diamond—88.5%
SimpleQA Verified—19.1%

Multimodal Not comparable

Granite 4.2 30b: —, Inkling-Small: 39.1 (#62)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 30bInkling-Small
LMArena Vision—1235

Multilingual Inkling-Small leads

Granite 4.2 30b: 47.3 (#151), Inkling-Small: 51.7 (#104)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 30bInkling-Small
LMArena Non-English13401402
LMArena Chinese14141465
LMArena Russian13431391
LMArena French—1436
LMArena German—1405
LMArena Japanese—1405
LMArena Korean—1363
LMArena Spanish—1428

Instruction Following Inkling-Small leads

Granite 4.2 30b: 71.2 (#155), Inkling-Small: 73.8 (#114)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 30bInkling-Small
LMArena Instruction Following13471399

Long Context Inkling-Small leads

Granite 4.2 30b: 41.4 (#140), Inkling-Small: 42.7 (#118)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 30bInkling-Small
LMArena Longer Query13591401

Writing & Preference Inkling-Small leads

Granite 4.2 30b: 53.8 (#156), Inkling-Small: 59.6 (#107)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 30bInkling-Small
LMArena Text13611414
LMArena Creative Writing12881331
LMArena Multi-Turn13391418
EQ-Bench Creative Writing—1491

Frequently asked questions

Is Granite 4.2 30b better than Inkling-Small?

Inkling-Small is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.5 to 41.8 on the Noometry Index.

Is Granite 4.2 30b or Inkling-Small better for coding?

Inkling-Small scores higher on coding benchmarks: 43.6 versus 41.0 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 30b and Inkling-Small share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 30b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Inkling-Small has 33.

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