GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) vs Granite 4.2 30B
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) by OpenAI or Granite 4.2 30B by IBM? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) scores 29.4 points higher (42.1 vs 12.7) but costs 23× as much to run the benchmark ($2501 vs $111; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) when you need intelligence above 12.7, and Granite 4.2 30B when 12.7 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) | Granite 4.2 30B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 42.1 | 12.7 | −69.8% Granite 4.2 30B is 69.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,500.72 | $110.83 | −95.6% Granite 4.2 30B is 95.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 110.99s | 61.27s | −44.8% Granite 4.2 30B is 44.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $12.0 | $0.16 / $0.65 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Granite 4.2 30B vs GPT-5.6 Terra (Max): 69.8% less intelligence, 95.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 44.8% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) 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.
GPT-5.6 Terra (Max)Granite 4.2 30BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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