# Granite 3.0 8b Instruct vs Qwen2.5-Max

> Qwen2.5-Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.1 to 31.1 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-3-0-8b-instruct-vs-qwen2-5-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 0 categories and Qwen2.5-Max in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen2.5-Max leads 55.6 to 31.2.
- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Qwen2.5-Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 31.1 | 40.1 |
| Rank | 266 | 142 |
| Context | — | — |
| Input $/M | — | — |
| Output $/M | — | — |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 29.1 (#297)
- Qwen2.5-Max: 41.2 (#118)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Qwen2.5-Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1113 | 1359 |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 29.3% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 64.4% |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 35.4% | — |

## Reasoning

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 20.0 (#227)
- Qwen2.5-Max: 24.6 (#144)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Qwen2.5-Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1092 | 1360 |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 51.4% |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 67.9% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 132.54 |
| LiveBench | — | 62.3% |

## Math

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 30.3 (#211)
- Qwen2.5-Max: 34.3 (#162)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Qwen2.5-Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1143 | 1369 |
| LiveBench Math | — | 58.4% |

## Knowledge

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 29.1 (#233)
- Qwen2.5-Max: 34.8 (#181)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Qwen2.5-Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1087 | 1337 |
| Confabulations | — | 21.8% |

## Multilingual

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 27.4 (#271)
- Qwen2.5-Max: 48.3 (#140)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Qwen2.5-Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1037 | 1352 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1063 | 1382 |
| LMArena Russian | 1060 | 1353 |
| LMArena French | — | 1396 |
| LMArena German | — | 1350 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1299 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1304 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1377 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 56.2 (#271)
- Qwen2.5-Max: 71.5 (#147)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Qwen2.5-Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1088 | 1335 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 75.3% |

## Long Context

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 34.0 (#247)
- Qwen2.5-Max: 41.3 (#137)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Qwen2.5-Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1122 | 1358 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 3.0 8b Instruct: 31.2 (#280)
- Qwen2.5-Max: 55.6 (#141)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 8b Instruct | Qwen2.5-Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1096 | 1367 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1071 | 1339 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1063 | 1364 |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | — | 72.9% |
| LiveBench Language | — | 56.3% |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 3.0 8b Instruct better than Qwen2.5-Max?

Qwen2.5-Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.1 to 31.1 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Granite 3.0 8b Instruct or Qwen2.5-Max better for coding?

Qwen2.5-Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.2 versus 29.1 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 3.0 8b Instruct and Qwen2.5-Max share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 3.0 8b Instruct has 14 scored results on Noometry and Qwen2.5-Max has 27.