Model comparison
Granite 4.1 8b vs Qwen3.5-9B
Granite 4.1 8b is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.4 to 33.8 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.5-9B leads 46.0 to 36.1.
Side by side
| Granite 4.1 8b | Qwen3.5-9B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 37.4 | 33.8 |
| Released | — | 2026-02-23 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | — | 262K |
| Max output | — | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | $0.10 |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | $0.15 |
| Results tracked | 13 | 10 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3.5-9B leads
Granite 4.1 8b: 30.1 (#297), Qwen3.5-9B: 35.9 (#217)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1192 | — |
| SciCode | — | 27.5% |
| LMArena Coding | 1312 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Granite 4.1 8b: —, Qwen3.5-9B: 14.5 (#151)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 9.2% |
Reasoning Granite 4.1 8b leads
Granite 4.1 8b: 25.7 (#143), Qwen3.5-9B: 23.1 (#182)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | — | 0.3% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 12% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1293 | — |
| DTBench | — | 71.2% |
| LMCA | — | 24.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 139.46 |
Math Granite 4.1 8b leads
Granite 4.1 8b: 36.4 (#166), Qwen3.5-9B: 34.8 (#192)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 48.5% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 61.7% |
| LMArena Math | 1312 | — |
Knowledge Qwen3.5-9B leads
Granite 4.1 8b: 36.1 (#174), Qwen3.5-9B: 46.0 (#84)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | — | 79% |
| LMArena Expert | 1309 | — |
Multilingual Not comparable
Granite 4.1 8b: 41.7 (#204), Qwen3.5-9B: —
| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1261 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1337 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1240 | — |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Granite 4.1 8b: 66.9 (#203), Qwen3.5-9B: —
| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1269 | — |
Long Context Not comparable
Granite 4.1 8b: 38.7 (#193), Qwen3.5-9B: —
| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1275 | — |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Granite 4.1 8b: 48.1 (#204), Qwen3.5-9B: —
| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1290 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1251 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1268 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.1 8b better than Qwen3.5-9B?
Granite 4.1 8b is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.4 to 33.8 on the Noometry Index.
Is Granite 4.1 8b or Qwen3.5-9B better for coding?
Qwen3.5-9B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 35.9 versus 30.1 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.1 8b and Qwen3.5-9B share?
0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.1 8b has 13 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5-9B has 10.