# Granite 3.0 2b Instruct vs Qwen3.8 Max

> Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 30.8 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-3-0-2b-instruct-vs-qwen3-8-max
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 12

## Summary

- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 3.0 2b Instruct scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.8 Max in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.8 Max leads 73.2 to 32.2.
- Granite 3.0 2b Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 30.8 | 56.8 |
| Rank | 286 | 22 |
| Context | — | 1M |
| Input $/M | — | $2 |
| Output $/M | — | $6 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 28.3 (#316)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 53.5 (#29)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1090 | 1502 |
| DeepSWE | — | 57.5% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1674 |
| FrontierSWE | — | 17.8% |
| SciCode | — | 53.2% |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 20.5% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: —
- Qwen3.8 Max: 45.4 (#14)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 63.3% |
| τ²-bench Banking | — | 55.1% |
| GDP.pdf | — | 23.2% |

## Reasoning

- Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 20.5 (#235)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 54.4 (#26)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1073 | 1496 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 88.3% |
| CritPt | — | 20% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 40% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 38% |
| DTBench | — | 92% |
| LMCA | — | 46.2% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 156.41 |

## Math

- Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 32.2 (#217)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 73.2 (#20)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1117 | 1499 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 74.7% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | — | 46.3% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 100% |
| ProofBench | — | 58% |

## Knowledge

- Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 29.0 (#241)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 61.7 (#27)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1064 | 1507 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 92.7% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 47.3% |

## Multimodal

- Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: —
- Qwen3.8 Max: 37.2 (#75)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1314 |
| Furniture Assembly | — | 20% |

## Multilingual

- Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 27.0 (#278)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 56.7 (#18)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1033 | 1472 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1070 | 1538 |
| LMArena Russian | 1045 | 1481 |
| LMArena French | — | 1503 |
| LMArena German | — | 1483 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1467 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1461 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1492 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 53.9 (#284)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 77.6 (#17)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1056 | 1479 |

## Long Context

- Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 32.5 (#268)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 45.6 (#31)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1070 | 1489 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 29.6 (#292)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 67.1 (#30)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1080 | 1483 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1046 | 1479 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1053 | 1489 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 3.0 2b Instruct better than Qwen3.8 Max?

Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 30.8 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Granite 3.0 2b Instruct or Qwen3.8 Max better for coding?

Qwen3.8 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 53.5 versus 28.3 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 3.0 2b Instruct and Qwen3.8 Max share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 3.0 2b Instruct has 13 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.8 Max has 39.