Model comparison

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct vs Qwen2.5-Max

Qwen2.5-Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.7 to 32.4 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct IBM

32.4

Rank #258 Confirmed

Qwen2.5-Max Alibaba (Qwen)

40.7

Rank #146 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 3.1 8b Instruct scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen2.5-Max in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen2.5-Max leads 55.4 to 35.5.
  • Granite 3.1 8b Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct and Qwen2.5-Max specifications
Granite 3.1 8b InstructQwen2.5-Max
ProviderIBMAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index32.440.7
Released—2025-01-25
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window——
Max output——
Input $ / M tokens——
Output $ / M tokens——
Results tracked1327

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Category by category

Coding Qwen2.5-Max leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 34.5 (#233), Qwen2.5-Max: 41.8 (#117)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructQwen2.5-Max
LMArena Coding11861359
LiveBench Coding—64.4%

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 24.1 (#120), Qwen2.5-Max: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructQwen2.5-Max
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard27.1%—

Reasoning Qwen2.5-Max leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 22.1 (#207), Qwen2.5-Max: 25.6 (#147)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructQwen2.5-Max
LMArena Hard Prompts11451360
LiveBench Reasoning—51.4%
LiveBench Data Analysis—67.9%
Epoch Capabilities Index—132.53
LiveBench—62.3%

Math Qwen2.5-Max leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 33.0 (#209), Qwen2.5-Max: 36.9 (#162)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructQwen2.5-Max
LMArena Math11521369
LiveBench Math—58.4%

Knowledge Qwen2.5-Max leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 31.1 (#220), Qwen2.5-Max: 35.3 (#186)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructQwen2.5-Max
LMArena Expert11421337
Confabulations—21.8%

Multilingual Qwen2.5-Max leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 30.9 (#260), Qwen2.5-Max: 48.1 (#146)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructQwen2.5-Max
LMArena Non-English10991352
LMArena Chinese11451382
LMArena Russian10921353
LMArena French—1396
LMArena German—1350
LMArena Japanese—1300
LMArena Korean—1304
LMArena Spanish—1377

Instruction Following Qwen2.5-Max leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 58.6 (#259), Qwen2.5-Max: 71.3 (#152)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructQwen2.5-Max
LMArena Instruction Following11311335
LiveBench Instruction Following—75.3%

Long Context Qwen2.5-Max leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 35.2 (#241), Qwen2.5-Max: 41.4 (#142)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructQwen2.5-Max
LMArena Longer Query11621358

Writing & Preference Qwen2.5-Max leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 35.5 (#266), Qwen2.5-Max: 55.4 (#146)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructQwen2.5-Max
LMArena Text11501367
LMArena Creative Writing11291339
LMArena Multi-Turn11081364
Short-Story Creative Writing—72.9%
LiveBench Language—56.3%

Frequently asked questions

Is Granite 3.1 8b Instruct better than Qwen2.5-Max?

Qwen2.5-Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.7 to 32.4 on the Noometry Index.

Is Granite 3.1 8b Instruct or Qwen2.5-Max better for coding?

Qwen2.5-Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.8 versus 34.5 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Granite 3.1 8b Instruct and Qwen2.5-Max share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 3.1 8b Instruct has 13 scored results on Noometry and Qwen2.5-Max has 27.

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