Model comparison
Granite 3.1 8b Instruct vs Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.1 to 32.4 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 3.1 8b Instruct scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads 55.3 to 35.5.
Side by side
| Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 32.4 | 38.1 |
| Released | — | 2025-04 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | — | 262K |
| Max output | — | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | $1.50 |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | $7.50 |
| Results tracked | 13 | 25 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 34.5 (#233), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 35.5 (#223)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1186 | 1412 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 55.4% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1275 |
| GSO | — | 4.9% |
| WeirdML | — | 41.2% |
| ALE-Bench | — | 461.45 |
| AlgoTune | — | 1.44 |
Agentic & Tool Use Too close to call
Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 24.1 (#120), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 23.9 (#123)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 27.2% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 27.1% | — |
Reasoning Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 22.1 (#207), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 25.5 (#149)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1145 | 1372 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 49.5% |
Math Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 33.0 (#209), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 37.6 (#150)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1152 | 1365 |
Knowledge Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 31.1 (#220), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 37.0 (#162)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1142 | 1338 |
Multilingual Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 30.9 (#260), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 47.7 (#148)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1099 | 1346 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1145 | 1357 |
| LMArena Russian | 1092 | 1366 |
| LMArena French | — | 1398 |
| LMArena German | — | 1325 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1310 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1305 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1360 |
Instruction Following Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 58.6 (#259), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 71.6 (#147)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1131 | 1355 |
Long Context Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 35.2 (#241), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 42.0 (#131)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1162 | 1378 |
Writing & Preference Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 35.5 (#266), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 55.3 (#147)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1150 | 1357 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1129 | 1333 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1108 | 1365 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 3.1 8b Instruct better than Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?
Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.1 to 32.4 on the Noometry Index.
Is Granite 3.1 8b Instruct or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct better for coding?
Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct scores higher on coding benchmarks: 35.5 versus 34.5 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Granite 3.1 8b Instruct and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct share?
12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 3.1 8b Instruct has 13 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct has 25.