Model comparison

Granite 4.2 8B vs MiniMax-M2

Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 37.4 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 11 shared benchmarks.

Granite 4.2 8B IBM

40.5

Rank #148 Confirmed

MiniMax-M2

MiniMax

37.4

Rank #204 Confirmed

Summary

They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 8B scores higher in 3 categories and MiniMax-M2 in 4 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in reasoning, where Granite 4.2 8B leads 26.6 to 19.4.
Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for MiniMax-M2.
MiniMax-M2 accepts more context: 205K tokens versus 131K.

Side by side

Granite 4.2 8B and MiniMax-M2 specifications
	Granite 4.2 8B	MiniMax-M2
Provider	IBM	MiniMax
Noometry Index	40.5	37.4
Released	—	2025-10-27
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	131K	205K
Max output	118K	131K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.06	$0.30
Output $ / M tokens	$0.25	$1.20
Results tracked	11	21

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Category by category

Coding Granite 4.2 8B leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 40.5 (#137), MiniMax-M2: 39.3 (#159)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	MiniMax-M2
LMArena Coding	1380	1370
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)	—	61%
LMArena WebDev	—	1297

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Granite 4.2 8B: —, MiniMax-M2: 25.1 (#109)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	MiniMax-M2
Terminal-Bench	—	30%
Vending-Bench 2	—	160.6

Reasoning Granite 4.2 8B leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 26.6 (#131), MiniMax-M2: 19.4 (#258)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	MiniMax-M2
LMArena Hard Prompts	1329	1357
Kagi LLM Benchmark	—	57.8%
NYT Connections (extended)	—	14.8%

Math Not comparable

Granite 4.2 8B: —, MiniMax-M2: 37.3 (#160)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	MiniMax-M2
LMArena Math	—	1352

Knowledge Granite 4.2 8B leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 38.4 (#145), MiniMax-M2: 37.0 (#163)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	MiniMax-M2
LMArena Expert	1384	1337

Multilingual Too close to call

Granite 4.2 8B: 44.5 (#178), MiniMax-M2: 45.3 (#171)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	MiniMax-M2
LMArena Non-English	1302	1313
LMArena Chinese	1366	1366
LMArena Russian	1285	1331
LMArena French	—	1335
LMArena German	—	1355
LMArena Spanish	—	1326

Instruction Following MiniMax-M2 leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 68.7 (#184), MiniMax-M2: 70.2 (#166)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	MiniMax-M2
LMArena Instruction Following	1301	1328

Long Context Too close to call

Granite 4.2 8B: 40.3 (#159), MiniMax-M2: 40.5 (#153)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	MiniMax-M2
LMArena Longer Query	1324	1331

Writing & Preference MiniMax-M2 leads

Granite 4.2 8B: 49.6 (#189), MiniMax-M2: 53.0 (#162)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Granite 4.2 8B	MiniMax-M2
LMArena Text	1320	1340
LMArena Creative Writing	1236	1286
LMArena Multi-Turn	1301	1361

Frequently asked questions

Is Granite 4.2 8B better than MiniMax-M2?

Granite 4.2 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 37.4 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, Granite 4.2 8B or MiniMax-M2?

Granite 4.2 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; MiniMax-M2 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.

Is Granite 4.2 8B or MiniMax-M2 better for coding?

Granite 4.2 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.5 versus 39.3 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax-M2 does, with 205K tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 8B and MiniMax-M2 share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 8B has 11 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2 has 21.