Model comparison

Granite 3.0 8b Instruct vs MiniMax-M2.5

MiniMax-M2.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.1 to 31.1 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.

Granite 3.0 8b Instruct IBM

31.1

Rank #266 Confirmed

MiniMax-M2.5 MiniMax

38.1

Rank #181 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 3.0 8b Instruct scores higher in 2 categories and MiniMax-M2.5 in 6 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in writing & preference, where MiniMax-M2.5 leads 54.1 to 31.2.

Side by side

Granite 3.0 8b Instruct and MiniMax-M2.5 specifications
Granite 3.0 8b InstructMiniMax-M2.5
ProviderIBMMiniMax
Noometry Index31.138.1
Released—2026-02-12
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window—205K
Max output—131K
Input $ / M tokens—$0.30
Output $ / M tokens—$1.20
Results tracked1433

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Category by category

Coding MiniMax-M2.5 leads

Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 29.1 (#297), MiniMax-M2.5: 47.9 (#53)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.0 8b InstructMiniMax-M2.5
LMArena Coding11131380
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)—75.8%
LMArena WebDev—1386
SWE-bench Multilingual—68.3%
BigCodeBench Instruct29.3%—
BigCodeBench Complete35.4%—
ALE-Bench—618.17

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: —, MiniMax-M2.5: 30.2 (#70)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.0 8b InstructMiniMax-M2.5
Terminal-Bench—42.7%
Vending-Bench 2—-23.16

Reasoning Granite 3.0 8b Instruct leads

Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 20.0 (#227), MiniMax-M2.5: 17.6 (#281)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.0 8b InstructMiniMax-M2.5
LMArena Hard Prompts10921372
ARC-AGI-2—4.9%
Kagi LLM Benchmark—55.2%
NYT Connections (extended)—16.8%
ARC-AGI-1—63.7%
Epoch Capabilities Index—146.68

Math Granite 3.0 8b Instruct leads

Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 30.3 (#211), MiniMax-M2.5: 25.8 (#242)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.0 8b InstructMiniMax-M2.5
LMArena Math11431378
ProofBench—4%

Knowledge MiniMax-M2.5 leads

Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 29.1 (#233), MiniMax-M2.5: 38.6 (#132)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.0 8b InstructMiniMax-M2.5
LMArena Expert10871378
Vectara Hallucination Rate—9.1%

Multilingual MiniMax-M2.5 leads

Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 27.4 (#271), MiniMax-M2.5: 47.3 (#147)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.0 8b InstructMiniMax-M2.5
LMArena Non-English10371338
LMArena Chinese10631392
LMArena Russian10601359
LMArena French—1363
LMArena German—1361
LMArena Japanese—1169
LMArena Korean—1232
LMArena Spanish—1354

Instruction Following MiniMax-M2.5 leads

Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 56.2 (#271), MiniMax-M2.5: 71.7 (#143)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.0 8b InstructMiniMax-M2.5
LMArena Instruction Following10881353

Long Context MiniMax-M2.5 leads

Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 34.0 (#247), MiniMax-M2.5: 37.4 (#211)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.0 8b InstructMiniMax-M2.5
LMArena Longer Query11221367
CL-bench—11.4%
CL-bench Life—6.3%

Writing & Preference MiniMax-M2.5 leads

Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 31.2 (#280), MiniMax-M2.5: 54.1 (#149)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.0 8b InstructMiniMax-M2.5
LMArena Text10961359
LMArena Creative Writing10711331
LMArena Multi-Turn10631364
EQ-Bench Creative Writing—1361

Frequently asked questions

Is Granite 3.0 8b Instruct better than MiniMax-M2.5?

MiniMax-M2.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.1 to 31.1 on the Noometry Index.

Is Granite 3.0 8b Instruct or MiniMax-M2.5 better for coding?

MiniMax-M2.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 47.9 versus 29.1 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Granite 3.0 8b Instruct and MiniMax-M2.5 share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 3.0 8b Instruct has 14 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2.5 has 33.

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