Model comparison

Granite 4.2 30b vs MiniMax-M3

MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 41.8 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.

Granite 4.2 30b IBM

41.8

Rank #130 Confirmed

MiniMax-M3 MiniMax

43.8

Rank #85 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 30b scores higher in 0 categories and MiniMax-M3 in 7 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in knowledge, where MiniMax-M3 leads 58.4 to 39.1.

Side by side

Granite 4.2 30b and MiniMax-M3 specifications
Granite 4.2 30bMiniMax-M3
ProviderIBMMiniMax
Noometry Index41.843.8
Released—2026-06-01
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window—1M
Max output—512K
Input $ / M tokens—$0.30
Output $ / M tokens—$1.20
Results tracked1141

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Category by category

Coding Too close to call

Granite 4.2 30b: 41.0 (#126), MiniMax-M3: 41.8 (#118)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 30bMiniMax-M3
LMArena Coding13961469
FrontierCode—14.7%
LMArena WebDev—1482
SciCode—47.1%
ALE-Bench—640.02

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Granite 4.2 30b: —, MiniMax-M3: 22.6 (#130)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 30bMiniMax-M3
APEX-Agents—37.7%
OSWorld 2.0—4.6%
GBAEval—0.9%
Vending-Bench 2—2,158

Reasoning MiniMax-M3 leads

Granite 4.2 30b: 27.8 (#112), MiniMax-M3: 30.1 (#87)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 30bMiniMax-M3
LMArena Hard Prompts13741447
SimpleBench—45.8%
NYT Connections (extended)—65.1%
CritPt—3.7%
Chess Puzzles—14%
Mystery Game Puzzles—8%
DTBench—78.9%
LMCA—33.7%
Surface Evolver Bench—55%
Epoch Capabilities Index—146.95
ForecastBench—61.4

Math Not comparable

Granite 4.2 30b: —, MiniMax-M3: 40.0 (#95)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 30bMiniMax-M3
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025—71.1%
ProofBench—18%
LMArena Math—1429

Knowledge MiniMax-M3 leads

Granite 4.2 30b: 39.1 (#138), MiniMax-M3: 58.4 (#35)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 30bMiniMax-M3
LMArena Expert14061461
GPQA Diamond—90.9%

Multimodal Not comparable

Granite 4.2 30b: —, MiniMax-M3: 40.2 (#51)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 30bMiniMax-M3
LMArena Vision—1253
LMArena Document—1435

Multilingual MiniMax-M3 leads

Granite 4.2 30b: 47.3 (#151), MiniMax-M3: 53.0 (#75)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 30bMiniMax-M3
LMArena Non-English13401420
LMArena Chinese14141463
LMArena Russian13431428
LMArena French—1447
LMArena German—1426
LMArena Japanese—1381
LMArena Korean—1372
LMArena Spanish—1432

Instruction Following MiniMax-M3 leads

Granite 4.2 30b: 71.2 (#155), MiniMax-M3: 75.5 (#62)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 30bMiniMax-M3
LMArena Instruction Following13471433

Long Context MiniMax-M3 leads

Granite 4.2 30b: 41.4 (#140), MiniMax-M3: 44.2 (#72)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 30bMiniMax-M3
LMArena Longer Query13591445

Writing & Preference MiniMax-M3 leads

Granite 4.2 30b: 53.8 (#156), MiniMax-M3: 62.1 (#83)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGranite 4.2 30bMiniMax-M3
LMArena Text13611433
LMArena Creative Writing12881404
LMArena Multi-Turn13391442
EQ-Bench 4—1150

Frequently asked questions

Is Granite 4.2 30b better than MiniMax-M3?

MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.8 to 41.8 on the Noometry Index.

Is Granite 4.2 30b or MiniMax-M3 better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (41.0 vs 41.8); test both on your own repository before choosing.

How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 30b and MiniMax-M3 share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 30b has 11 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M3 has 41.

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