Head-to-head comparison across 1benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.
LFM2.5-8B-A1B
50
Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Thinking
59
Pick Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Thinking if you want the stronger benchmark profile. LFM2.5-8B-A1B only becomes the better choice if instruction following is the priority.
Inst. Following
+3.0 difference
LFM2.5-8B-A1B
Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Thinking
$0 / $0
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
128K
128K
Pick Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Thinking if you want the stronger benchmark profile. LFM2.5-8B-A1B only becomes the better choice if instruction following is the priority.
Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Thinking is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 59 to 50. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Thinking is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 59 to 50. The biggest single separator in this matchup is IFEval, where the scores are 91.8% and 76.5%.
LFM2.5-8B-A1B has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 79.5 versus 76.5. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
For engineers, researchers, and the plain curious — a weekly brief on new models, ranking shifts, and pricing changes.
Free. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.