# Granite 4.2 8B vs MiniMax M1

> Granite 4.2 8B and MiniMax M1 score almost the same on the Noometry Index (40.5 vs 40.3), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-4-2-8b-vs-minimax-m1
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 11

## Summary

- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 8B scores higher in 2 categories and MiniMax M1 in 5 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where MiniMax M1 leads 53.1 to 49.6.
- Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $0.55 / $2.20 for MiniMax M1.
- MiniMax M1 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.2 8B | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | MiniMax |
| Noometry Index | 40.5 | 40.3 |
| Rank | 148 | 150 |
| Context | 131K | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.06 | $0.55 |
| Output $/M | $0.25 | $2.20 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)
- MiniMax M1: 39.9 (#153)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1380 | 1359 |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)
- MiniMax M1: 26.9 (#126)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1329 | 1339 |

## Math

- Granite 4.2 8B: —
- MiniMax M1: 37.5 (#151)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | — | 1361 |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145)
- MiniMax M1: 36.4 (#170)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1384 | 1317 |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)
- MiniMax M1: 45.8 (#163)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1302 | 1319 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1366 | 1360 |
| LMArena Russian | 1285 | 1329 |
| LMArena French | — | 1370 |
| LMArena German | — | 1350 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1217 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1266 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1353 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)
- MiniMax M1: 69.3 (#174)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1301 | 1312 |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)
- MiniMax M1: 41.4 (#141)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1324 | 1326 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 69.4% |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)
- MiniMax M1: 53.1 (#161)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1320 | 1343 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1236 | 1298 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1301 | 1335 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.2 8B better than MiniMax M1?

Granite 4.2 8B and MiniMax M1 score almost the same on the Noometry Index (40.5 vs 40.3), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

### Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 8B or MiniMax M1?

Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; MiniMax M1 lists at $0.55 and $2.20.

### Is Granite 4.2 8B or MiniMax M1 better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (40.5 vs 39.9); test both on your own repository before choosing.

### Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax M1 does, with 1M tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 8B and MiniMax M1 share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 8B has 11 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax M1 has 18.