# Granite 4.2 30b vs Grok 4 Fast

> Granite 4.2 30b is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.4 to 39.0 on the Noometry Index.

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

## Summary

- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 30b scores higher in 3 categories and Grok 4 Fast in 4 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in long context, where Grok 4 Fast leads 63.2 to 41.4.
- Granite 4.2 30b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4 Fast |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | xAI |
| Noometry Index | 41.4 | 39.0 |
| Rank | 126 | 164 |
| Context | — | — |
| Input $/M | — | — |
| Output $/M | — | — |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Granite 4.2 30b: 40.4 (#127)
- Grok 4 Fast: 32.3 (#264)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4 Fast |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1394 | 1429 |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1160 |
| WeirdML | — | 42.9% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Granite 4.2 30b: —
- Grok 4 Fast: 29.3 (#80)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4 Fast |
|---|---|---|
| τ²-bench Banking | — | 15.7% |
| Cybench | — | 30% |
| LMArena Search | — | 1171 |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.2 30b: 26.7 (#114)
- Grok 4 Fast: 22.5 (#179)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4 Fast |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1375 | 1413 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | — | 5.3% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 66.1% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | — | 48.5% |
| DTBench | — | 82.7% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 144.21 |
| ForecastBench | — | 60.5 |

## Math

- Granite 4.2 30b: —
- Grok 4 Fast: 36.1 (#126)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4 Fast |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | — | 1419 |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.2 30b: 38.5 (#134)
- Grok 4 Fast: 31.5 (#211)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4 Fast |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1405 | 1411 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 19.7% |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.2 30b: 47.4 (#146)
- Grok 4 Fast: 51.5 (#106)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4 Fast |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1340 | 1397 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1415 | 1458 |
| LMArena Russian | 1342 | 1387 |
| LMArena French | — | 1433 |
| LMArena German | — | 1383 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1358 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1359 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1414 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.2 30b: 71.3 (#150)
- Grok 4 Fast: 73.4 (#116)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4 Fast |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1346 | 1388 |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.2 30b: 41.4 (#135)
- Grok 4 Fast: 63.2 (#3)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4 Fast |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1359 | 1415 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 94.4% |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.2 30b: 54.3 (#147)
- Grok 4 Fast: 60.2 (#96)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4 Fast |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1363 | 1407 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1294 | 1388 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1340 | 1414 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.2 30b better than Grok 4 Fast?

Granite 4.2 30b is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.4 to 39.0 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Granite 4.2 30b or Grok 4 Fast better for coding?

Granite 4.2 30b scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.4 versus 32.3 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 30b and Grok 4 Fast share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 30b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Grok 4 Fast has 30.