Model comparison
Granite 4.2 30b vs Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
Granite 4.2 30b is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.8 to 37.6 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.6 35B-A3B leads 51.3 to 39.1.
Side by side
| Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 41.8 | 37.6 |
| Released | — | 2026-04-01 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | — | 262K |
| Max output | — | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | $0.25 |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | $1.49 |
| Results tracked | 11 | 14 |
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Category by category
Coding Granite 4.2 30b leads
Granite 4.2 30b: 41.0 (#126), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 37.2 (#196)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | — | 35.8% |
| WeirdML | — | 34.5% |
| LMArena Coding | 1396 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Granite 4.2 30b: —, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 22.1 (#134)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 23% |
Reasoning Too close to call
Granite 4.2 30b: 27.8 (#112), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 28.0 (#109)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 41.6% |
| CritPt | — | 0.3% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 26% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1374 | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 22% |
| DTBench | — | 73.9% |
| LMCA | — | 29.7% |
| Surface Evolver Bench | — | 44.4% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 143.93 |
Math Not comparable
Granite 4.2 30b: —, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 38.9 (#121)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 20.4% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 86.7% |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 35B-A3B leads
Granite 4.2 30b: 39.1 (#138), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 51.3 (#68)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | — | 84.8% |
| LMArena Expert | 1406 | — |
Multilingual Not comparable
Granite 4.2 30b: 47.3 (#151), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: —
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1340 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1414 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1343 | — |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Granite 4.2 30b: 71.2 (#155), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: —
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1347 | — |
Long Context Not comparable
Granite 4.2 30b: 41.4 (#140), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: —
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1359 | — |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Granite 4.2 30b: 53.8 (#156), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: —
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1361 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1288 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1339 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.2 30b better than Qwen3.6 35B-A3B?
Granite 4.2 30b is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.8 to 37.6 on the Noometry Index.
Is Granite 4.2 30b or Qwen3.6 35B-A3B better for coding?
Granite 4.2 30b scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.0 versus 37.2 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 30b and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B share?
0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 30b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B has 14.