# Granite 4.2 8B vs Qwen3.8 Max

> Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.2 8B costs 28× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.8 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-4-2-8b-vs-qwen3-8-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 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 26.6.
- Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $6 for Qwen3.8 Max.
- Qwen3.8 Max accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.
- Granite 4.2 8B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 40.5 | 56.8 |
| Rank | 148 | 22 |
| Context | 131K | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.06 | $2 |
| Output $/M | $0.25 | $6 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 53.5 (#29)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1380 | 1502 |
| DeepSWE | — | 57.5% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1674 |
| FrontierSWE | — | 17.8% |
| SciCode | — | 53.2% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

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

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

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 54.4 (#26)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1329 | 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 8B: —
- Qwen3.8 Max: 73.2 (#20)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | 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 8B: 38.4 (#145)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 61.7 (#27)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1384 | 1507 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 92.7% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 47.3% |

## Multimodal

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

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

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 56.7 (#18)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1302 | 1472 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1366 | 1538 |
| LMArena Russian | 1285 | 1481 |
| LMArena French | — | 1503 |
| LMArena German | — | 1483 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1467 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1461 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1492 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 77.6 (#17)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1301 | 1479 |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 45.6 (#31)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1324 | 1489 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 67.1 (#30)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1320 | 1483 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1236 | 1479 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1301 | 1489 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.2 8B better than Qwen3.8 Max?

Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.2 8B costs 28× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.8 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 8B or Qwen3.8 Max?

Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 Max lists at $2 and $6.

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

Qwen3.8 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 53.5 versus 40.5 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.8 Max does, with 1M tokens against 131K.

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

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