Granite 4.2 30B vs MiniMax-M3
Which is better for the money: Granite 4.2 30B by IBM or MiniMax-M3 by MiniMax? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
MiniMax-M3 scores 16.5 points higher (29.2 vs 12.7) but costs 4.9× as much to run the benchmark ($538 vs $111; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick MiniMax-M3 when you need intelligence above 12.7, and Granite 4.2 30B when 12.7 is enough.
| Metric | Granite 4.2 30B | MiniMax-M3 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 12.7 | 29.2 | +129.9% MiniMax-M3 is 2.3× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $110.83 | $537.98 | +385.4% MiniMax-M3 is 4.9× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 51.51s | 25.47s | −50.6% MiniMax-M3 is 50.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.16 / $0.65 | $0.30 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Video |
MiniMax-M3 vs Granite 4.2 30B: 129.9% more intelligence, 385.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 50.6% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Granite 4.2 30B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Flash scores 37.90 for $110.
- MiniMax-M3 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
Granite 4.2 30BMiniMax-M3Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-30b/minimax-m3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-30b/minimax-m3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill