Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Granite 4.2 30B
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Granite 4.2 30B by IBM? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… scores 43.3 points higher (56.0 vs 12.7) but costs 66× as much to run the benchmark ($7260 vs $111; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… when you need intelligence above 12.7, and Granite 4.2 30B when 12.7 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Granite 4.2 30B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 56.0 | 12.7 | −77.3% Granite 4.2 30B is 77.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $7,259.50 | $110.83 | −98.5% Granite 4.2 30B is 98.5% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 385.69s | 54.96s | −85.8% Granite 4.2 30B is 85.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.16 / $0.65 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Granite 4.2 30B vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 77.3% less intelligence, 98.5% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 85.8% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- Granite 4.2 30B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Flash scores 37.90 for $110.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)Granite 4.2 30BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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