Granite 4.2 30B vs Solar Mini 4
Which is better for the money: Granite 4.2 30B by IBM or Solar Mini 4 by Upstage? 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
Solar Mini 4 scores 11.4 points higher (24.1 vs 12.7) but costs 4.5× as much to run the benchmark ($502 vs $111; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Solar Mini 4 when you need intelligence above 12.7, and Granite 4.2 30B when 12.7 is enough.
| Metric | Granite 4.2 30B | Solar Mini 4 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 12.7 | 24.1 | +89.8% Solar Mini 4 is 89.8% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $110.83 | $502.02 | +353.0% Solar Mini 4 is 4.5× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 44.22s | 27.46s | −37.9% Solar Mini 4 is 37.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.16 / $0.65 | $0.10 / $0.40 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Solar Mini 4 vs Granite 4.2 30B: 89.8% more intelligence, 353.0% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 37.9% 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.
- Solar Mini 4 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Granite 4.2 30BSolar Mini 4Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-30b/solar-mini4 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-30b/solar-mini4?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill