Noometry

Model comparison

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct vs Qwen3.8 Max

Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 32.4 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct IBM

32.4

Rank #258 Confirmed

Qwen3.8 Max Alibaba (Qwen)

56.8

Rank #22 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 3.1 8b Instruct scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.8 Max in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.8 Max leads 73.2 to 33.0.
  • Granite 3.1 8b Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Granite 3.1 8b InstructQwen3.8 Max
ProviderIBMAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index32.456.8
Released—2026-08-02
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window—1M
Max output—131K
Input $ / M tokens—$2
Output $ / M tokens—$6
Results tracked1339

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Category by category

Coding Qwen3.8 Max leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 34.5 (#233), Qwen3.8 Max: 53.5 (#29)

BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructQwen3.8 Max
LMArena Coding11861502
DeepSWE—57.5%
LMArena WebDev—1674
FrontierSWE—17.8%
SciCode—53.2%

Agentic & Tool Use Qwen3.8 Max leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 24.1 (#120), Qwen3.8 Max: 45.4 (#14)

BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructQwen3.8 Max
APEX-Agents—63.3%
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard27.1%—
τ²-bench Banking—55.1%
GDP.pdf—23.2%

Reasoning Qwen3.8 Max leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 22.1 (#207), Qwen3.8 Max: 54.4 (#26)

BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructQwen3.8 Max
LMArena Hard Prompts11451496
NYT Connections (extended)—88.3%
CritPt—20%
Chess Puzzles—40%
Mystery Game Puzzles—38%
DTBench—92%
LMCA—46.2%
Epoch Capabilities Index—156.41

Math Qwen3.8 Max leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 33.0 (#209), Qwen3.8 Max: 73.2 (#20)

BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructQwen3.8 Max
LMArena Math11521499
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)—74.7%
FrontierMath Tier 4—46.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025—100%
ProofBench—58%

Knowledge Qwen3.8 Max leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 31.1 (#220), Qwen3.8 Max: 61.7 (#27)

BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructQwen3.8 Max
LMArena Expert11421507
GPQA Diamond—92.7%
SimpleQA Verified—47.3%

Multimodal Not comparable

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: —, Qwen3.8 Max: 37.2 (#75)

BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructQwen3.8 Max
LMArena Vision—1314
Furniture Assembly—20%

Multilingual Qwen3.8 Max leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 30.9 (#260), Qwen3.8 Max: 56.7 (#18)

BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructQwen3.8 Max
LMArena Non-English10991472
LMArena Chinese11451538
LMArena Russian10921481
LMArena French—1503
LMArena German—1483
LMArena Japanese—1467
LMArena Korean—1461
LMArena Spanish—1492

Instruction Following Qwen3.8 Max leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 58.6 (#259), Qwen3.8 Max: 77.6 (#17)

BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructQwen3.8 Max
LMArena Instruction Following11311479

Long Context Qwen3.8 Max leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 35.2 (#241), Qwen3.8 Max: 45.6 (#31)

BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructQwen3.8 Max
LMArena Longer Query11621489

Writing & Preference Qwen3.8 Max leads

Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 35.5 (#266), Qwen3.8 Max: 67.1 (#30)

BenchmarkGranite 3.1 8b InstructQwen3.8 Max
LMArena Text11501483
LMArena Creative Writing11291479
LMArena Multi-Turn11081489

Frequently asked questions

Is Granite 3.1 8b Instruct better than Qwen3.8 Max?

Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 32.4 on the Noometry Index.

Is Granite 3.1 8b Instruct or Qwen3.8 Max better for coding?

Qwen3.8 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 53.5 versus 34.5 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Granite 3.1 8b Instruct and Qwen3.8 Max share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 3.1 8b Instruct has 13 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.8 Max has 39.

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