Granite 4.2 30B vs Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Granite 4.2 30B by IBM or Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) by Kimi? 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
Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) scores 14.3 points higher (27.0 vs 12.7) but costs 14× as much to run the benchmark ($1528 vs $111; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) when you need intelligence above 12.7, and Granite 4.2 30B when 12.7 is enough.
| Metric | Granite 4.2 30B | Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 12.7 | 27.0 | +112.6% Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is 2.1× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $110.83 | $1,528.20 | +1278.9% Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is 14× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 55.20s | 54.37s | −1.5% Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is 1.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.16 / $0.65 | $0.95 / $4.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Video |
Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) vs Granite 4.2 30B: 112.6% more intelligence, 1278.9% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 1.5% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Granite 4.2 30B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Flash scores 37.90 for $110.
- Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Granite 4.2 30BKimi K2.6 (Reasoning)Today'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/granite-4-2-30b/kimi-k2-6 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-30b/kimi-k2-6?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill