Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) vs Granite 4.2 30B
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) 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 (Max) scores 25.5 points higher (38.2 vs 12.7) but costs 63× as much to run the benchmark ($6998 vs $111; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) when you need intelligence above 12.7, and Granite 4.2 30B when 12.7 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) | Granite 4.2 30B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.2 | 12.7 | −66.8% Granite 4.2 30B is 66.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $6,998.25 | $110.83 | −98.4% Granite 4.2 30B is 98.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 184.22s | 51.51s | −72.0% Granite 4.2 30B is 72.0% 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 (Max): 66.8% less intelligence, 98.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 72.0% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) 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 (Max)Granite 4.2 30BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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