Model comparison
Granite 4.2 30b vs Qwen2.5-Max
Granite 4.2 30b is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.8 to 40.7 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 30b scores higher in 3 categories and Qwen2.5-Max in 4 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Granite 4.2 30b leads 39.1 to 35.3.
- Granite 4.2 30b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen2.5-Max | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 41.8 | 40.7 |
| Released | — | 2025-01-25 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | — | — |
| Max output | — | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | — |
| Results tracked | 11 | 27 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Too close to call
Granite 4.2 30b: 41.0 (#126), Qwen2.5-Max: 41.8 (#117)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen2.5-Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1396 | 1359 |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 64.4% |
Reasoning Granite 4.2 30b leads
Granite 4.2 30b: 27.8 (#112), Qwen2.5-Max: 25.6 (#147)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen2.5-Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1374 | 1360 |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 51.4% |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 67.9% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 132.53 |
| LiveBench | — | 62.3% |
Math Not comparable
Granite 4.2 30b: —, Qwen2.5-Max: 36.9 (#162)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen2.5-Max |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Math | — | 58.4% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1369 |
Knowledge Granite 4.2 30b leads
Granite 4.2 30b: 39.1 (#138), Qwen2.5-Max: 35.3 (#186)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen2.5-Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1406 | 1337 |
| Confabulations | — | 21.8% |
Multilingual Too close to call
Granite 4.2 30b: 47.3 (#151), Qwen2.5-Max: 48.1 (#146)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen2.5-Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1340 | 1352 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1414 | 1382 |
| LMArena Russian | 1343 | 1353 |
| LMArena French | — | 1396 |
| LMArena German | — | 1350 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1300 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1304 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1377 |
Instruction Following Too close to call
Granite 4.2 30b: 71.2 (#155), Qwen2.5-Max: 71.3 (#152)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen2.5-Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1347 | 1335 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 75.3% |
Long Context Too close to call
Granite 4.2 30b: 41.4 (#140), Qwen2.5-Max: 41.4 (#142)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen2.5-Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1359 | 1358 |
Writing & Preference Qwen2.5-Max leads
Granite 4.2 30b: 53.8 (#156), Qwen2.5-Max: 55.4 (#146)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen2.5-Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1361 | 1367 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1288 | 1339 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1339 | 1364 |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | — | 72.9% |
| LiveBench Language | — | 56.3% |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.2 30b better than Qwen2.5-Max?
Granite 4.2 30b is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.8 to 40.7 on the Noometry Index.
Is Granite 4.2 30b or Qwen2.5-Max better for coding?
They score almost the same on coding (41.0 vs 41.8); test both on your own repository before choosing.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 30b and Qwen2.5-Max share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 30b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Qwen2.5-Max has 27.