Model comparison
Granite 4.2 3b vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.5 to 39.4 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 3b scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.6 Max Preview in 7 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads 57.6 to 36.3.
- Granite 4.2 3b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 39.4 | 51.5 |
| Released | — | 2026-04-20 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | — | 262K |
| Max output | — | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | $1.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | $7.80 |
| Results tracked | 11 | 29 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 40.0 (#151), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 48.7 (#54)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1361 | 1471 |
| SWE-bench Verified | — | 76.7% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1482 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Granite 4.2 3b: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: —
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 4,254 |
Reasoning Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 26.0 (#138), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 41.7 (#53)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1306 | 1457 |
| SimpleBench | — | 63% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 74.1% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 20% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 19% |
| DTBench | — | 87.2% |
| LMCA | — | 42.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 149.24 |
Math Not comparable
Granite 4.2 3b: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.1 (#46)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 91.1% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1465 |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 23.1% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 4.2% |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 36.3 (#171), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 57.6 (#39)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1315 | 1478 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 87.4% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 52% |
Multilingual Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 42.1 (#198), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.2 (#48)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1268 | 1437 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1269 | 1487 |
| LMArena Russian | 1249 | 1445 |
| LMArena French | — | 1449 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1454 |
Instruction Following Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 67.1 (#200), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 75.7 (#55)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1273 | 1438 |
Long Context Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 39.2 (#185), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 44.6 (#61)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1291 | 1457 |
Writing & Preference Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 47.2 (#212), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 63.8 (#60)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1293 | 1447 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1205 | 1435 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1290 | 1456 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.2 3b better than Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.5 to 39.4 on the Noometry Index.
Is Granite 4.2 3b or Qwen3.6 Max Preview better for coding?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.7 versus 40.0 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 3b and Qwen3.6 Max Preview share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 3b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Max Preview has 29.