# Granite 4.2 8B vs Qwen3 Max

> Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.7 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.2 8B costs 22× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-4-2-8b-vs-qwen3-max
- 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 1 category and Qwen3 Max in 6 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen3 Max leads 62.4 to 49.6.
- Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
- Qwen3 Max accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.
- Granite 4.2 8B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 40.5 | 43.7 |
| Rank | 148 | 87 |
| Context | 131K | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.06 | $1.20 |
| Output $/M | $0.25 | $6 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137)
- Qwen3 Max: 43.0 (#93)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1380 | 1456 |
| ALE-Bench | — | 370.45 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Granite 4.2 8B: —
- Qwen3 Max: —

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 71.56 |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131)
- Qwen3 Max: 22.6 (#190)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1329 | 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 4.2 8B: —
- Qwen3 Max: 38.7 (#131)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 18.9% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 73.3% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1446 |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 97.1% |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145)
- Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#78)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1384 | 1455 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 72.6% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 48.7% |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178)
- Qwen3 Max: 53.7 (#62)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1302 | 1429 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1366 | 1478 |
| LMArena Russian | 1285 | 1428 |
| LMArena French | — | 1449 |
| LMArena German | — | 1463 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1397 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1399 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1462 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184)
- Qwen3 Max: 74.8 (#87)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1301 | 1419 |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159)
- Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#134)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1324 | 1438 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |
| CL-bench | — | 14.5% |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189)
- Qwen3 Max: 62.4 (#76)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1320 | 1439 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1236 | 1402 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1301 | 1446 |

## FAQ

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

Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.7 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.2 8B costs 22× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

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

Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.

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

Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 43.0 versus 40.5 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3 Max does, with 262K tokens against 131K.

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

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 8B has 11 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.