Granite 4.2 8B vs MiniMax-M3
Which is better for the money: Granite 4.2 8B by IBM or MiniMax-M3 by MiniMax? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
MiniMax-M3 scores 18.1 points higher (29.2 vs 11.1) but costs 10× as much to run the benchmark ($538 vs $53.1; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick MiniMax-M3 when you need intelligence above 11.1, and Granite 4.2 8B when 11.1 is enough.
| Metric | Granite 4.2 8B | MiniMax-M3 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.1 | 29.2 | +163.1% MiniMax-M3 is 2.6× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $53.07 | $537.98 | +913.7% MiniMax-M3 is 10× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 39.25s | 26.74s | −31.9% MiniMax-M3 is 31.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.06 / $0.25 | $0.30 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Video |
MiniMax-M3 vs Granite 4.2 8B: 163.1% more intelligence, 913.7% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 31.9% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Granite 4.2 8B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (High) scores 32.90 for $47.9.
- 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 8BMiniMax-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-4-2-8b/minimax-m3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-8b/minimax-m3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill