Agents-A1 vs Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Thinking
Head-to-head comparison across 2benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.
Verdict
Agents-A1 leads for most workloads.
Based on BenchLM composite scores, July 2026.
Agents-A1
63
Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Thinking
59
Pick Agents-A1 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Thinking only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority.
Category Radar
Head-to-Head by Category
Category Breakdown
| Benchmark | Agents-A1 | Δ | Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Thinking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inst. Following | 94.8 | ← 18.3 | 76.5 |
| Knowledge | 47.6 | → 10.0 | 57.6 |
| Agentic | 75.5 | — | — |
| Coding | — | — | 69.9 |
| Reasoning | 60.2 | — | — |
Operational Comparison
Agents-A1
Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Thinking
N/A
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262K
128K
Quick Verdict
Pick Agents-A1 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Thinking only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority.
Agents-A1 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 63 to 59. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
Agents-A1's sharpest advantage is in instruction following, where it averages 94.8 against 76.5. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is IFEval, 94.8% to 76.5%. Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Thinking does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.
Agents-A1 gives you the larger context window at 262K, compared with 128K for Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Thinking.
Benchmark Deep Dive
Frequently Asked Questions (3)
Which is better, Agents-A1 or Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Thinking?
Agents-A1 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 63 to 59. The biggest single separator in this matchup is IFEval, where the scores are 94.8% and 76.5%.
Which is better for knowledge tasks, Agents-A1 or Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Thinking?
Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Thinking has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 57.6 versus 47.6. Agents-A1 stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.
Which is better for instruction following, Agents-A1 or Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Thinking?
Agents-A1 has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 94.8 versus 76.5. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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