# Granite 4.2 30b vs Qwen3.8 Max

> Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 41.8 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-qwen3-8-max
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 11

## Summary

- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 30b scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.8 Max in 7 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Qwen3.8 Max leads 54.4 to 27.8.
- Granite 4.2 30b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 41.8 | 56.8 |
| Rank | 130 | 22 |
| Context | — | 1M |
| Input $/M | — | $2 |
| Output $/M | — | $6 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Granite 4.2 30b: 41.0 (#126)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 53.5 (#29)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1396 | 1502 |
| DeepSWE | — | 57.5% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1674 |
| FrontierSWE | — | 17.8% |
| SciCode | — | 53.2% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Granite 4.2 30b: —
- Qwen3.8 Max: 45.4 (#14)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 63.3% |
| τ²-bench Banking | — | 55.1% |
| GDP.pdf | — | 23.2% |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.2 30b: 27.8 (#112)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 54.4 (#26)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1374 | 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 4.2 30b: —
- Qwen3.8 Max: 73.2 (#20)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 74.7% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | — | 46.3% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 100% |
| ProofBench | — | 58% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1499 |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.2 30b: 39.1 (#138)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 61.7 (#27)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1406 | 1507 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 92.7% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 47.3% |

## Multimodal

- Granite 4.2 30b: —
- Qwen3.8 Max: 37.2 (#75)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1314 |
| Furniture Assembly | — | 20% |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.2 30b: 47.3 (#151)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 56.7 (#18)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1340 | 1472 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1414 | 1538 |
| LMArena Russian | 1343 | 1481 |
| LMArena French | — | 1503 |
| LMArena German | — | 1483 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1467 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1461 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1492 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.2 30b: 71.2 (#155)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 77.6 (#17)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1347 | 1479 |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.2 30b: 41.4 (#140)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 45.6 (#31)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1359 | 1489 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.2 30b: 53.8 (#156)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 67.1 (#30)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1361 | 1483 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1288 | 1479 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1339 | 1489 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.2 30b better than Qwen3.8 Max?

Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 41.8 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Granite 4.2 30b or Qwen3.8 Max better for coding?

Qwen3.8 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 53.5 versus 41.0 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 30b and Qwen3.8 Max share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 30b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.8 Max has 39.