# Granite 4.2 30b vs Grok 4.1

> Granite 4.2 30b and Grok 4.1 score almost the same on the Noometry Index (41.8 vs 41.5), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-grok-4-1
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 11

## Summary

- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 30b scores higher in 1 category and Grok 4.1 in 6 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Grok 4.1 leads 62.4 to 53.8.
- Granite 4.2 30b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | xAI |
| Noometry Index | 41.8 | 41.5 |
| Rank | 130 | 134 |
| Context | — | — |
| Input $/M | — | — |
| Output $/M | — | — |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Granite 4.2 30b: 41.0 (#126)
- Grok 4.1: 33.7 (#253)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1396 | 1445 |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1214 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Granite 4.2 30b: —
- Grok 4.1: 34.1 (#49)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Cybench | — | 39% |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.2 30b: 27.8 (#112)
- Grok 4.1: 29.5 (#91)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1374 | 1435 |

## Math

- Granite 4.2 30b: —
- Grok 4.1: 38.9 (#120)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | — | 1422 |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.2 30b: 39.1 (#138)
- Grok 4.1: 39.5 (#133)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1406 | 1417 |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.2 30b: 47.3 (#151)
- Grok 4.1: 53.4 (#68)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1340 | 1425 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1414 | 1465 |
| LMArena Russian | 1343 | 1434 |
| LMArena French | — | 1448 |
| LMArena German | — | 1446 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1397 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1407 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1438 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.2 30b: 71.2 (#155)
- Grok 4.1: 73.8 (#111)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1347 | 1400 |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.2 30b: 41.4 (#140)
- Grok 4.1: 43.2 (#100)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1359 | 1416 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.2 30b: 53.8 (#156)
- Grok 4.1: 62.4 (#75)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1361 | 1437 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1288 | 1411 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1339 | 1437 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.2 30b better than Grok 4.1?

Granite 4.2 30b and Grok 4.1 score almost the same on the Noometry Index (41.8 vs 41.5), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

### Is Granite 4.2 30b or Grok 4.1 better for coding?

Granite 4.2 30b scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.0 versus 33.7 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 30b and Grok 4.1 share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 30b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Grok 4.1 has 19.