granite 3.1 1b a400m instruct (IBM Granite) and granite 4.2 30b (IBM Granite) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.
Snapshot as of 17 September 2026
As of 17 September 2026, granite 4.2 30b holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#147 vs #205).
Evidence: publisher-corpus-prior over 197 held-out anchors (7%); launch card against 2 resolved peers on 4 rows (94%); no cross-lab optimism probe available; shrunk 1.2 up toward the measured corpus · 2 public benchmark observations across 2 boards. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.
granite 3.1 1b a400m instruct vs granite 4.2 30b: common questions
Is granite 3.1 1b a400m instruct better than granite 4.2 30b?
granite 4.2 30b ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 17 September 2026: #147 against #205. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it. Their published uncertainty intervals do not overlap, but the aggregate Index does not predict performance on every task; compare the relevant benchmark configurations before choosing.
Is granite 3.1 1b a400m instruct cheaper than granite 4.2 30b?
At least one of the two has no listed API price on ModelCap right now, so no price comparison is made.
Which has the bigger context window, granite 3.1 1b a400m instruct or granite 4.2 30b?
Both publish a —-token context window.
Which is better for coding, granite 3.1 1b a400m instruct or granite 4.2 30b?
The two models do not share a coding benchmark board on ModelCap yet, so no head-to-head coding score is published; the ModelCap Index position is the closest overall signal.
Are granite 3.1 1b a400m instruct and granite 4.2 30b open-weight models?
granite 3.1 1b a400m instruct: Open weights. granite 4.2 30b: Open weights. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence; API-only models are available solely through hosted endpoints.
Where can I run granite 3.1 1b a400m instruct and granite 4.2 30b?
ModelCap currently lists 0 API providers for granite 3.1 1b a400m instruct and 0 for granite 4.2 30b, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.
How current is this granite 3.1 1b a400m instruct vs granite 4.2 30b comparison?
Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 17 September 2026; the page re-renders within a minute of each data refresh, and the ModelCap Index positions are the same ones shown on the live rankings.