# Granite 3.0 8b Instruct vs Qwen Max

> Qwen Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 34.7 to 31.6 on the Noometry Index.

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

## Summary

- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 3.0 8b Instruct scores higher in 1 category and Qwen Max in 7 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen Max leads 47.8 to 31.1.
- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 31.6 | 34.7 |
| Rank | 270 | 230 |
| Context | — | 33K |
| Input $/M | — | $1.60 |
| Output $/M | — | $6.40 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 29.7 (#301)
- Qwen Max: 30.7 (#292)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1112 | 1288 |
| Aider Polyglot | — | 21.8% |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 29.3% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 35.4% | — |

## Reasoning

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 20.9 (#230)
- Qwen Max: 25.1 (#151)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1092 | 1269 |

## Math

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 32.8 (#210)
- Qwen Max: 22.3 (#276)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1143 | 1275 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 16.1% |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 67.2% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 1% |

## Knowledge

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 29.6 (#236)
- Qwen Max: 30.3 (#228)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1087 | 1248 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 56.1% |

## Multilingual

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 27.2 (#276)
- Qwen Max: 41.8 (#202)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1037 | 1263 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1063 | 1254 |
| LMArena Russian | 1060 | 1274 |
| LMArena French | — | 1330 |
| LMArena German | — | 1254 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1205 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1142 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1290 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 56.0 (#276)
- Qwen Max: 66.5 (#208)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1088 | 1262 |

## Long Context

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 34.0 (#252)
- Qwen Max: 39.4 (#180)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1122 | 1288 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 31.1 (#285)
- Qwen Max: 47.8 (#205)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1096 | 1282 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1071 | 1248 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1063 | 1277 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 3.0 8b Instruct better than Qwen Max?

Qwen Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 34.7 to 31.6 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Granite 3.0 8b Instruct or Qwen Max better for coding?

Qwen Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 30.7 versus 29.7 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 3.0 8b Instruct and Qwen Max share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 3.0 8b Instruct has 14 scored results on Noometry and Qwen Max has 23.