# Granite 3.1 8b Instruct vs Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct

> Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.7 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-3-1-8b-instruct-vs-qwen3-coder-480b-a35b-instruct
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 12

## Summary

- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 3.1 8b Instruct scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads 55.5 to 35.7.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 31.8 | 37.7 |
| Rank | 256 | 186 |
| Context | — | 262K |
| Input $/M | — | $1.50 |
| Output $/M | — | $7.50 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 33.9 (#232)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 36.2 (#199)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1186 | 1413 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 55.4% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1275 |
| GSO | — | 4.9% |
| WeirdML | — | 41.2% |
| ALE-Bench | — | 461.45 |
| AlgoTune | — | 1.44 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 23.9 (#113)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 23.7 (#116)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 27.2% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 27.1% | — |

## Reasoning

- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 21.2 (#204)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 24.7 (#141)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1146 | 1372 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 49.5% |

## Math

- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 30.4 (#210)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 34.9 (#151)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1152 | 1364 |

## Knowledge

- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 30.6 (#218)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 36.4 (#159)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1142 | 1337 |

## Multilingual

- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 31.1 (#255)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 47.8 (#143)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1099 | 1345 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1145 | 1356 |
| LMArena Russian | 1092 | 1367 |
| LMArena French | — | 1394 |
| LMArena German | — | 1324 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1309 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1307 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1360 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 58.9 (#254)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 71.8 (#142)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1131 | 1356 |

## Long Context

- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 35.2 (#236)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 42.0 (#126)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1162 | 1379 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 3.1 8b Instruct: 35.7 (#261)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 55.5 (#142)

| Benchmark | Granite 3.1 8b Instruct | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1150 | 1356 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1129 | 1333 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1108 | 1365 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 3.1 8b Instruct better than Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.7 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Granite 3.1 8b Instruct or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct better for coding?

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct scores higher on coding benchmarks: 36.2 versus 33.9 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 3.1 8b Instruct and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 3.1 8b Instruct has 13 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct has 25.