Claude Opus 5 (Medium) vs Granite 4.2 30B
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5 (Medium) by Anthropic or Granite 4.2 30B by IBM? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5 (Medium) scores 32.1 points higher (44.8 vs 12.7) but costs 25× as much to run the benchmark ($2732 vs $111; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5 (Medium) when you need intelligence above 12.7, and Granite 4.2 30B when 12.7 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5 (Medium) | Granite 4.2 30B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 44.8 | 12.7 | −71.7% Granite 4.2 30B is 71.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,731.91 | $110.83 | −95.9% Granite 4.2 30B is 95.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 13.14s | 36.08s | +174.6% Granite 4.2 30B is 174.6% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $25.0 | $0.16 / $0.65 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Granite 4.2 30B vs Claude Opus 5 (Medium): 71.7% less intelligence, 95.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 174.6% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
- Granite 4.2 30B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Flash scores 37.90 for $110.
Claude Opus 5 (Medium)Granite 4.2 30BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-medium/granite-4-2-30b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-medium/granite-4-2-30b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill