Model comparison
Granite 4.2 3b vs MiniMax-M3
MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 39.4 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 0 categories and MiniMax-M3 in 7 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where MiniMax-M3 leads 58.4 to 36.3.
Side by side
| Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | MiniMax |
| Noometry Index | 39.4 | 43.8 |
| Released | — | 2026-06-01 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | — | 1M |
| Max output | — | 512K |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | $0.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | $1.20 |
| Results tracked | 11 | 41 |
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Category by category
Coding MiniMax-M3 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 40.0 (#151), MiniMax-M3: 41.8 (#118)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1361 | 1469 |
| FrontierCode | — | 14.7% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1482 |
| SciCode | — | 47.1% |
| ALE-Bench | — | 640.02 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Granite 4.2 3b: —, MiniMax-M3: 22.6 (#130)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 37.7% |
| OSWorld 2.0 | — | 4.6% |
| GBAEval | — | 0.9% |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 2,158 |
Reasoning MiniMax-M3 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 26.0 (#138), MiniMax-M3: 30.1 (#87)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1306 | 1447 |
| SimpleBench | — | 45.8% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 65.1% |
| CritPt | — | 3.7% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 14% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 8% |
| DTBench | — | 78.9% |
| LMCA | — | 33.7% |
| Surface Evolver Bench | — | 55% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 146.95 |
| ForecastBench | — | 61.4 |
Math Not comparable
Granite 4.2 3b: —, MiniMax-M3: 40.0 (#95)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 71.1% |
| ProofBench | — | 18% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1429 |
Knowledge MiniMax-M3 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 36.3 (#171), MiniMax-M3: 58.4 (#35)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1315 | 1461 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 90.9% |
Multimodal Not comparable
Granite 4.2 3b: —, MiniMax-M3: 40.2 (#51)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1253 |
| LMArena Document | — | 1435 |
Multilingual MiniMax-M3 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 42.1 (#198), MiniMax-M3: 53.0 (#75)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1268 | 1420 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1269 | 1463 |
| LMArena Russian | 1249 | 1428 |
| LMArena French | — | 1447 |
| LMArena German | — | 1426 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1381 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1372 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1432 |
Instruction Following MiniMax-M3 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 67.1 (#200), MiniMax-M3: 75.5 (#62)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1273 | 1433 |
Long Context MiniMax-M3 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 39.2 (#185), MiniMax-M3: 44.2 (#72)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1291 | 1445 |
Writing & Preference MiniMax-M3 leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 47.2 (#212), MiniMax-M3: 62.1 (#83)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | MiniMax-M3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1293 | 1433 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1205 | 1404 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1290 | 1442 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | — | 1150 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.2 3b better than MiniMax-M3?
MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 39.4 on the Noometry Index.
Is Granite 4.2 3b or MiniMax-M3 better for coding?
MiniMax-M3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.8 versus 40.0 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 3b and MiniMax-M3 share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 3b has 11 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M3 has 41.