Model comparison

Granite 4.2 3b vs MiniMax M1

Granite 4.2 3b and MiniMax M1 score almost the same on the Noometry Index (39.0 vs 39.7), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.

Granite 4.2 3b IBM

39.0

Rank #163 Confirmed

MiniMax M1 MiniMax

39.7

Rank #146 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 3b scores higher in 1 category and MiniMax M1 in 6 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in writing & preference, where MiniMax M1 leads 53.3 to 47.9.

Side by side

Granite 4.2 3b and MiniMax M1 specifications
Granite 4.2 3bMiniMax M1
ProviderIBMMiniMax
Noometry Index39.039.7
Released—2025-06-13
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window—1M
Max output—40K
Input $ / M tokens—$0.40
Output $ / M tokens—$2.20
Results tracked1118

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Category by category

Coding Too close to call

Granite 4.2 3b: 39.4 (#146), MiniMax M1: 39.2 (#149)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 3bMiniMax M1
LMArena Coding13631359

Reasoning Too close to call

Granite 4.2 3b: 25.0 (#136), MiniMax M1: 25.8 (#125)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 3bMiniMax M1
LMArena Hard Prompts13081340

Math Not comparable

Granite 4.2 3b: —, MiniMax M1: 34.8 (#152)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 3bMiniMax M1
LMArena Math—1360

Knowledge Too close to call

Granite 4.2 3b: 35.6 (#169), MiniMax M1: 35.7 (#168)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 3bMiniMax M1
LMArena Expert13131316

Multilingual MiniMax M1 leads

Granite 4.2 3b: 42.4 (#193), MiniMax M1: 46.0 (#157)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 3bMiniMax M1
LMArena Non-English12681320
LMArena Chinese12681361
LMArena Russian12491330
LMArena French—1369
LMArena German—1350
LMArena Japanese—1220
LMArena Korean—1263
LMArena Spanish—1354

Instruction Following MiniMax M1 leads

Granite 4.2 3b: 67.2 (#195), MiniMax M1: 69.5 (#169)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 3bMiniMax M1
LMArena Instruction Following12711312

Long Context MiniMax M1 leads

Granite 4.2 3b: 39.3 (#179), MiniMax M1: 41.4 (#136)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 3bMiniMax M1
LMArena Longer Query12931326
Fiction.LiveBench—69.4%

Writing & Preference MiniMax M1 leads

Granite 4.2 3b: 47.9 (#202), MiniMax M1: 53.3 (#155)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 3bMiniMax M1
LMArena Text12951343
LMArena Creative Writing12151298
LMArena Multi-Turn12931335

Frequently asked questions

Is Granite 4.2 3b better than MiniMax M1?

Granite 4.2 3b and MiniMax M1 score almost the same on the Noometry Index (39.0 vs 39.7), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

Is Granite 4.2 3b or MiniMax M1 better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (39.4 vs 39.2); test both on your own repository before choosing.

How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 3b and MiniMax M1 share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 3b has 11 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax M1 has 18.

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