Model comparison
Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct vs Muse Spark
Head-to-head evidence from 1 shared benchmark result across 1 category. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.
Public leaderboard positions: Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct unranked (Not scored); Muse Spark #13 (Supported). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.
Evidence parity. Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct and Muse Spark share 1 comparable benchmark result. 1 of 8 categories are comparable. 4 results are unique to Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct; 38 to Muse Spark.
Updated July 23, 2026- Shared results
- 1
- Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct only
- 4
- Muse Spark only
- 38
- Comparable categories
- 1 / 8
Treat this as a split decision. Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct makes more sense if you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model; Muse Spark is the better fit if knowledge is the priority or you need the larger 262K context window.
Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 1 shared benchmark result across 1 evidence category; 1 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.
Why this result
Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct and Muse Spark finish on the same BenchAlign overall score, so this is less about a single winner and more about where the edge shows up. The BenchAlign headline says tie; the benchmark table is where the real choice happens.
Muse Spark is the reasoning model in the pair, while Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use. Muse Spark gives you the larger context window at 262K, compared with 128K for Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct.
Category breakdown
Exact category averages are shown below. Not measured means BenchLM does not have enough sourced public coverage for that model and category.
| Category | Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct | Δ | Muse Spark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knowledge | Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct40.9 | Margin→ 9.5 | Muse Spark50.4 |
| Agentic | Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructNot measured | MarginNo overlap | Muse Spark59.0 |
| Coding | Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructNot measured | MarginNo overlap | Muse Spark67.8 |
| Reasoning | Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructNot measured | MarginNo overlap | Muse Spark42.5 |
| Math | Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructNot measured | MarginNo overlap | Muse Spark32.9 |
| Multimodal | Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructNot measured | MarginNo overlap | Muse Spark82.5 |
| Inst. Following | Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct75.8 | MarginNo overlap | Muse SparkNot measured |
Operational comparison
Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.
| Metric | Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct | Muse Spark | Comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokens | Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructNot available | Muse SparkNot available | A complete price comparison is not available. |
| Generation speedtokens per second | Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructNot available | Muse SparkNot available | A complete speed comparison is not available. |
| First-answer latencyseconds to first token | Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructNot available | Muse SparkNot available | A complete latency comparison is not available. |
| Context windowmaximum listed tokens | Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct128K | Muse Spark262K | Muse Spark lists the larger context window. |
Benchmark Deep Dive
Agentic9 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct | Muse Spark | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| BFCL v4Source | 44.2% | — | Not comparable |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0Source | — | 59% | Not comparable |
| τ²-bench resultsSource | — | 91.5% | Not comparable |
| DeepSearchQASource | — | 74.8% | Not comparable |
| CyberGymSource | — | 43.5% | Not comparable |
| Claw-EvalSource | — | 63.8% | Not comparable |
| AA Agentic IndexSource | — | 28.7% | Not comparable |
| GDPval-AASource | — | 32.2% | Not comparable |
| GDPval-AASource | — | 1144 | Not comparable |
Coding6 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct | Muse Spark | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench VerifiedSource | — | 77.4% | Not comparable |
| SWE-bench ProSource | — | 52.4% | Not comparable |
| LiveCodeBench ProSource | — | 80.0% | Not comparable |
| Vibe Code BenchSource | — | 19.67% | Not comparable |
| AA Coding IndexSource | — | 58.6% | Not comparable |
| AA-SciCodeSource | — | 51.5% | Not comparable |
Reasoning3 benchmarks
KnowledgeMuse Spark wins13 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct | Muse Spark | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-ReduxSource | 78.1% | — | Not comparable |
| GPQASource | 40.9% | — | Not comparable |
| GPQA-DSource | 40.9% | 89.5% | Muse Spark leads |
| HLESource | — | 50.4% | Not comparable |
| HLE w/o toolsSource | — | 42.8% | Not comparable |
| HealthBench HardSource | — | 42.8% | Not comparable |
| MedXpertQA (Text)Source | — | 52.6% | Not comparable |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource | — | 43.1% | Not comparable |
| AA-GPQA DiamondSource | — | 88.4% | Not comparable |
| AA-HLESource | — | 39.9% | Not comparable |
| AA-Omniscience IndexSource | — | 4.1% | Not comparable |
| AA-Omniscience AccuracySource | — | 44.6% | Not comparable |
| AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource | — | 73.2% | Not comparable |
Math2 benchmarks
Multimodal8 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct | Muse Spark | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| CharXivSource | — | 86.4% | Not comparable |
| MMMU-ProSource | — | 80.4% | Not comparable |
| ERQASource | — | 64.7% | Not comparable |
| SimpleVQASource | — | 71.3% | Not comparable |
| ScreenSpot ProSource | — | 84.1% | Not comparable |
| ZeroBenchSource | — | 33.0% | Not comparable |
| MedXpertQA (MM)Source | — | 78.4% | Not comparable |
| AA-MMMU-ProSource | — | 80.5% | Not comparable |
Frequently Asked Questions (2)
Which is better, Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct or Muse Spark?
Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct and Muse Spark are tied on the BenchAlign overall score, so the right pick depends on which category matters most for your use case.
Which is better for knowledge tasks, Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct or Muse Spark?
Muse Spark has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 50.4 versus 40.9. Inside this category, GPQA-D is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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