# Granite 4.1 8b vs Qwen3 Max

> Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.7 to 37.4 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-4-1-8b-vs-qwen3-max
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 12

## Summary

- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.1 8b scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3 Max in 7 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen3 Max leads 62.4 to 48.1.
- Granite 4.1 8b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.1 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 37.4 | 43.7 |
| Rank | 205 | 87 |
| Context | — | 262K |
| Input $/M | — | $1.20 |
| Output $/M | — | $6 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Granite 4.1 8b: 30.1 (#297)
- Qwen3 Max: 43.0 (#93)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1312 | 1456 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1192 | — |
| ALE-Bench | — | 370.45 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Granite 4.1 8b: —
- Qwen3 Max: —

| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 71.56 |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.1 8b: 25.7 (#143)
- Qwen3 Max: 22.6 (#190)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1293 | 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 | — | 142.38 |

## Math

- Granite 4.1 8b: 36.4 (#166)
- Qwen3 Max: 38.7 (#131)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1312 | 1446 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 18.9% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 73.3% |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 97.1% |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.1 8b: 36.1 (#174)
- Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#78)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1309 | 1455 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 72.6% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 48.7% |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.1 8b: 41.7 (#204)
- Qwen3 Max: 53.7 (#62)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1261 | 1429 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1337 | 1478 |
| LMArena Russian | 1240 | 1428 |
| LMArena French | — | 1449 |
| LMArena German | — | 1463 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1397 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1399 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1462 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.1 8b: 66.9 (#203)
- Qwen3 Max: 74.8 (#87)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1269 | 1419 |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.1 8b: 38.7 (#193)
- Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#134)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1275 | 1438 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |
| CL-bench | — | 14.5% |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.1 8b: 48.1 (#204)
- Qwen3 Max: 62.4 (#76)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1290 | 1439 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1251 | 1402 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1268 | 1446 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.1 8b better than Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.7 to 37.4 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Granite 4.1 8b or Qwen3 Max better for coding?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 43.0 versus 30.1 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.1 8b and Qwen3 Max share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.1 8b has 13 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.