Model comparison
Granite 4.2 3b vs MiniMax-M2.5
Granite 4.2 3b is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.4 to 38.3 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.
MiniMaxSummary
- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 3b scores higher in 2 categories and MiniMax-M2.5 in 5 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Granite 4.2 3b leads 26.0 to 17.5.
Side by side
| Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M2.5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | MiniMax |
| Noometry Index | 39.4 | 38.3 |
| Released | — | 2026-02-12 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | — | 205K |
| Max output | — | 131K |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | $0.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | $1.20 |
| Results tracked | 11 | 33 |
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Category by category
Coding MiniMax-M2.5 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 40.0 (#151), MiniMax-M2.5: 48.1 (#58)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1361 | 1381 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 75.8% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1387 |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | — | 68.3% |
| ALE-Bench | — | 618.17 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Granite 4.2 3b: —, MiniMax-M2.5: 30.4 (#77)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 42.7% |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | -23.16 |
Reasoning Granite 4.2 3b leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 26.0 (#138), MiniMax-M2.5: 17.5 (#292)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1306 | 1372 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | — | 4.9% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 55.2% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 16.8% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | — | 63.7% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 146.68 |
Math Not comparable
Granite 4.2 3b: —, MiniMax-M2.5: 26.9 (#253)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| ProofBench | — | 4% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1378 |
Knowledge MiniMax-M2.5 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 36.3 (#171), MiniMax-M2.5: 39.2 (#135)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1315 | 1379 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 9.1% |
Multilingual MiniMax-M2.5 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 42.1 (#198), MiniMax-M2.5: 47.1 (#152)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1268 | 1338 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1269 | 1393 |
| LMArena Russian | 1249 | 1358 |
| LMArena French | — | 1362 |
| LMArena German | — | 1362 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1171 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1232 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1354 |
Instruction Following MiniMax-M2.5 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 67.1 (#200), MiniMax-M2.5: 71.5 (#148)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1273 | 1353 |
Long Context Granite 4.2 3b leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 39.2 (#185), MiniMax-M2.5: 37.5 (#216)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1291 | 1366 |
| CL-bench | — | 11.4% |
| CL-bench Life | — | 6.3% |
Writing & Preference MiniMax-M2.5 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 47.2 (#212), MiniMax-M2.5: 53.9 (#153)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1293 | 1359 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1205 | 1331 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1290 | 1364 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1361 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.2 3b better than MiniMax-M2.5?
Granite 4.2 3b is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.4 to 38.3 on the Noometry Index.
Is Granite 4.2 3b or MiniMax-M2.5 better for coding?
MiniMax-M2.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.1 versus 40.0 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 3b and MiniMax-M2.5 share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 3b has 11 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2.5 has 33.