Model comparison
Granite 3.1 2b Instruct vs Qwen3.5 Max Preview
Qwen3.5 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 45.3 to 33.2 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 3.1 2b Instruct scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.5 Max Preview in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen3.5 Max Preview leads 66.0 to 34.1.
- Granite 3.1 2b Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Granite 3.1 2b Instruct | Qwen3.5 Max Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 33.2 | 45.3 |
| Released | — | — |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | — | — |
| Max output | — | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | — |
| Results tracked | 12 | 17 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3.5 Max Preview leads
Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 33.4 (#257), Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 44.0 (#77)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 2b Instruct | Qwen3.5 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1149 | 1487 |
Reasoning Qwen3.5 Max Preview leads
Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 22.0 (#209), Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 30.8 (#84)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 2b Instruct | Qwen3.5 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1138 | 1483 |
Math Qwen3.5 Max Preview leads
Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 33.1 (#206), Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 40.1 (#94)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 2b Instruct | Qwen3.5 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1159 | 1474 |
Knowledge Qwen3.5 Max Preview leads
Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 30.8 (#224), Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 41.8 (#107)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 2b Instruct | Qwen3.5 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1131 | 1489 |
Multilingual Qwen3.5 Max Preview leads
Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 29.1 (#269), Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 56.2 (#22)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 2b Instruct | Qwen3.5 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1068 | 1465 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1139 | 1534 |
| LMArena Russian | 1063 | 1471 |
| LMArena French | — | 1484 |
| LMArena German | — | 1487 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1495 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1438 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1470 |
Instruction Following Qwen3.5 Max Preview leads
Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 57.7 (#264), Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 77.0 (#31)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 2b Instruct | Qwen3.5 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1116 | 1467 |
Long Context Qwen3.5 Max Preview leads
Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 35.0 (#244), Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 45.2 (#45)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 2b Instruct | Qwen3.5 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1155 | 1476 |
Writing & Preference Qwen3.5 Max Preview leads
Granite 3.1 2b Instruct: 34.1 (#274), Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 66.0 (#41)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 2b Instruct | Qwen3.5 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1127 | 1470 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1116 | 1464 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1099 | 1478 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 3.1 2b Instruct better than Qwen3.5 Max Preview?
Qwen3.5 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 45.3 to 33.2 on the Noometry Index.
Is Granite 3.1 2b Instruct or Qwen3.5 Max Preview better for coding?
Qwen3.5 Max Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 44.0 versus 33.4 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Granite 3.1 2b Instruct and Qwen3.5 Max Preview share?
12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 3.1 2b Instruct has 12 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5 Max Preview has 17.