DeepSeek V3 0324 vs Granite 4.2 30B
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V3 0324 by DeepSeek 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
Granite 4.2 30B scores 3.0 points higher (12.7 vs 9.7) but costs 5.6× as much to run the benchmark ($111 vs $19.9; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Granite 4.2 30B when you need intelligence above 9.7, and DeepSeek V3 0324 when 9.7 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Granite 4.2 30B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 9.7 | 12.7 | +30.9% Granite 4.2 30B is 30.9% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $19.87 | $110.83 | +457.8% Granite 4.2 30B is 5.6× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 4.37s | 54.96s | +1157.7% Granite 4.2 30B is 1157.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.24 / $0.90 | $0.16 / $0.65 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Granite 4.2 30B vs DeepSeek V3 0324: 30.9% more intelligence, 457.8% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 1157.7% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V3 0324 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- Granite 4.2 30B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Flash scores 37.90 for $110.
DeepSeek V3 0324Granite 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/deepseek-v3-0324/granite-4-2-30b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v3-0324/granite-4-2-30b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill