Model comparison
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.
Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.
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.
Side by side
| Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4.1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | xAI |
| Noometry Index | 41.8 | 41.5 |
| Released | — | 2025-11-17 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | — | — |
| Max output | — | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | — |
| Results tracked | 11 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Granite 4.2 30b leads
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 Not comparable
Granite 4.2 30b: —, Grok 4.1: 34.1 (#49)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Cybench | — | 39% |
Reasoning Grok 4.1 leads
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 Not comparable
Granite 4.2 30b: —, Grok 4.1: 38.9 (#120)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Grok 4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | — | 1422 |
Knowledge Too close to call
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 Grok 4.1 leads
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 Grok 4.1 leads
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 Grok 4.1 leads
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 Grok 4.1 leads
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 |
Frequently asked questions
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.