Model comparison
Granite 4.2 30b vs Qwen Plus
Granite 4.2 30b is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.8 to 37.1 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 30b scores higher in 6 categories and Qwen Plus in 1 category; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Granite 4.2 30b leads 39.1 to 27.4.
- Granite 4.2 30b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 41.8 | 37.1 |
| Released | — | 2024-01-25 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | — | 1M |
| Max output | — | 33K |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | $0.40 |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | $1.20 |
| Results tracked | 11 | 20 |
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Category by category
Coding Granite 4.2 30b leads
Granite 4.2 30b: 41.0 (#126), Qwen Plus: 38.9 (#167)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1396 | 1328 |
Reasoning Too close to call
Granite 4.2 30b: 27.8 (#112), Qwen Plus: 28.4 (#107)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1374 | 1317 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 63.3% |
| DTBench | — | 81.1% |
| LMCA | — | 24% |
Math Not comparable
Granite 4.2 30b: —, Qwen Plus: 23.3 (#271)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 17.8% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1326 |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 65.3% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 1.7% |
Knowledge Granite 4.2 30b leads
Granite 4.2 30b: 39.1 (#138), Qwen Plus: 27.4 (#251)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1406 | 1328 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 48.1% |
Multilingual Granite 4.2 30b leads
Granite 4.2 30b: 47.3 (#151), Qwen Plus: 45.1 (#175)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1340 | 1310 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1414 | 1347 |
| LMArena Russian | 1343 | 1323 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1251 |
Instruction Following Granite 4.2 30b leads
Granite 4.2 30b: 71.2 (#155), Qwen Plus: 68.8 (#181)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1347 | 1303 |
Long Context Granite 4.2 30b leads
Granite 4.2 30b: 41.4 (#140), Qwen Plus: 40.3 (#158)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1359 | 1324 |
Writing & Preference Granite 4.2 30b leads
Granite 4.2 30b: 53.8 (#156), Qwen Plus: 52.2 (#176)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1361 | 1326 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1288 | 1293 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1339 | 1336 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.2 30b better than Qwen Plus?
Granite 4.2 30b is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.8 to 37.1 on the Noometry Index.
Is Granite 4.2 30b or Qwen Plus better for coding?
Granite 4.2 30b scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.0 versus 38.9 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 30b and Qwen Plus share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 30b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Qwen Plus has 20.