Model comparison

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.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 11 shared benchmarks.

Granite 4.2 8B IBM

40.5

Rank #148 Confirmed

MiniMax M1

MiniMax

40.3

Rank #150 Confirmed

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.

Side by side

Granite 4.2 8B and MiniMax M1 specifications
	Granite 4.2 8B	MiniMax M1
Provider	IBM	MiniMax
Noometry Index	40.5	40.3
Released	—	2025-06-13
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	131K	1M
Max output	118K	40K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.06	$0.55
Output $ / M tokens	$0.25	$2.20
Results tracked	11	18

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Category by category

Coding Too close to call

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

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	MiniMax M1
LMArena Coding	1380	1359

Reasoning Too close to call

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

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	MiniMax M1
LMArena Hard Prompts	1329	1339

Math Not comparable

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

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	MiniMax M1
LMArena Math	—	1361

Knowledge Granite 4.2 8B leads

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

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	MiniMax M1
LMArena Expert	1384	1317

Multilingual MiniMax M1 leads

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

Multilingual benchmarks
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 Too close to call

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

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

Long Context MiniMax M1 leads

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

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	MiniMax M1
LMArena Longer Query	1324	1326
Fiction.LiveBench	—	69.4%

Writing & Preference MiniMax M1 leads

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

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

Frequently asked questions

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.