Model comparison
Granite 4.2 3b vs Qwen3 Max
Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 39.0 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 1 category and Qwen3 Max in 6 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen3 Max leads 62.6 to 47.9.
- Granite 4.2 3b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3 Max | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 39.0 | 43.5 |
| Released | — | 2025-09-23 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | — | 262K |
| Max output | — | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | $1.20 |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | $6 |
| Results tracked | 11 | 33 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3 Max leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 39.4 (#146), Qwen3 Max: 42.4 (#93)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1363 | 1456 |
| ALE-Bench | — | 370.45 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Granite 4.2 3b: —, Qwen3 Max: —
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 71.56 |
Reasoning Granite 4.2 3b leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 25.0 (#136), Qwen3 Max: 22.0 (#186)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1308 | 1448 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 72.5% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 30.1% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 4% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 5% |
| DTBench | — | 82.1% |
| LMCA | — | 28.3% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 142.41 |
Math Not comparable
Granite 4.2 3b: —, Qwen3 Max: 37.6 (#94)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 18.9% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 73.3% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1447 |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 97.1% |
Knowledge Qwen3 Max leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 35.6 (#169), Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#72)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1313 | 1457 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 72.6% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 48.7% |
Multilingual Qwen3 Max leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 42.4 (#193), Qwen3 Max: 53.9 (#58)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1268 | 1429 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1268 | 1479 |
| LMArena Russian | 1249 | 1428 |
| LMArena French | — | 1450 |
| LMArena German | — | 1463 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1399 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1397 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1463 |
Instruction Following Qwen3 Max leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 67.2 (#195), Qwen3 Max: 75.0 (#81)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1271 | 1420 |
Long Context Qwen3 Max leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 39.3 (#179), Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#129)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1293 | 1439 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |
| CL-bench | — | 14.5% |
Writing & Preference Qwen3 Max leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 47.9 (#202), Qwen3 Max: 62.6 (#72)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1295 | 1439 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1215 | 1401 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1293 | 1446 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.2 3b better than Qwen3 Max?
Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 39.0 on the Noometry Index.
Is Granite 4.2 3b or Qwen3 Max better for coding?
Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 39.4 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 3b and Qwen3 Max share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 3b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.