# Granite 4.2 8B vs Qwen Max

> Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 34.7 on the Noometry Index.

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

## Summary

- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 8B scores higher in 7 categories and Qwen Max in 0 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in coding, where Granite 4.2 8B leads 40.5 to 30.7.
- Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $1.60 / $6.40 for Qwen Max.
- Granite 4.2 8B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 33K.
- Granite 4.2 8B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 40.5 | 34.7 |
| Rank | 148 | 230 |
| Context | 131K | 33K |
| Input $/M | $0.06 | $1.60 |
| Output $/M | $0.25 | $6.40 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)
- Qwen Max: 30.7 (#292)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1380 | 1288 |
| Aider Polyglot | — | 21.8% |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)
- Qwen Max: 25.1 (#151)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1329 | 1269 |

## Math

- Granite 4.2 8B: —
- Qwen Max: 22.3 (#276)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 16.1% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1275 |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 67.2% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 1% |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145)
- Qwen Max: 30.3 (#228)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1384 | 1248 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 56.1% |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)
- Qwen Max: 41.8 (#202)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1302 | 1263 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1366 | 1254 |
| LMArena Russian | 1285 | 1274 |
| LMArena French | — | 1330 |
| LMArena German | — | 1254 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1205 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1142 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1290 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)
- Qwen Max: 66.5 (#208)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1301 | 1262 |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)
- Qwen Max: 39.4 (#180)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1324 | 1288 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)
- Qwen Max: 47.8 (#205)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1320 | 1282 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1236 | 1248 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1301 | 1277 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.2 8B better than Qwen Max?

Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 34.7 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 8B or Qwen Max?

Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; Qwen Max lists at $1.60 and $6.40.

### Is Granite 4.2 8B or Qwen Max better for coding?

Granite 4.2 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.5 versus 30.7 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Granite 4.2 8B does, with 131K tokens against 33K.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 8B and Qwen Max share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 8B has 11 scored results on Noometry and Qwen Max has 23.