# Granite 4.2 8B vs MAI-Thinking-1

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Granite 4.2 8B and MAI-Thinking-1 across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/granite-4-2-8b-vs-mai-thinking-1
- Last updated: October 15, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 7
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5.8

## Quick Verdict

MAI-Thinking-1 leads by point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence. Choose using the category evidence and your own workload tests.

## Summary

- MAI-Thinking-1 has the higher overall point estimate 53.33 to 33.4. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.
- The clearest category separation is in knowledge, where the averages are 30.6 for Granite 4.2 8B and 55.6 for MAI-Thinking-1.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is SWE-bench Pro in Coding, with scores of 19.1% and 52.8%.
- MAI-Thinking-1 also has the larger context window at 256K.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Granite 4.2 8B | MAI-Thinking-1 |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | IBM | Microsoft |
| Type | Open Weight | Proprietary |
| Reasoning | Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Context | 128K | 256K |
| Overall Score | 33.4 | 53.33 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 14 | 13 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $0.00 / $0.00 | N/A |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 15.7 (Estimated · #113/127)
- MAI-Thinking-1 public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | MAI-Thinking-1 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 20.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| τ³-bench results | 58.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| BFCL v4 | 52.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0 | Coming soon | 46% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 17.2 (Estimated · #125/150)
- MAI-Thinking-1 public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | MAI-Thinking-1 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 47.7% | 73.5% | MAI-Thinking-1 |
| SWE-bench Pro | 19.1% | 52.8% | MAI-Thinking-1 |
| SWE Multilingual | 30.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 20.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench v6 | 73.2% | 87.7% | MAI-Thinking-1 |
| SciCode | 36.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0 | Coming soon | 46.0% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 56.8 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)
- MAI-Thinking-1 public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | MAI-Thinking-1 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Graphwalks BFS 128K | Coming soon | 90% | Coming soon |

### Knowledge

- Winner: Directional only
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 30.6 (Supported · #154/184)
- MAI-Thinking-1 public-lane score: 55.6 (Estimated · #56/184)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | MAI-Thinking-1 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 64.1% | 84.2% | MAI-Thinking-1 |
| MMLU-Pro | 74.0% | 85% | MAI-Thinking-1 |
| GPQA-D | Coming soon | 84.2% | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: MAI-Thinking-1
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 86.5 (#41/146)
- MAI-Thinking-1 public-lane score: 94.7 (#3/146)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | MAI-Thinking-1 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 79.3% | 85% | MAI-Thinking-1 |

### Mathematics

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: Coming soon
- MAI-Thinking-1 public-lane score: 81.1 (Unranked · 3 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | MAI-Thinking-1 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| AIME 2025 | 86.7% | 97% | MAI-Thinking-1 |
| HMMT Feb 2025 | 78.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| AIME26 | Coming soon | 94.5% | Coming soon |
| HMMT Feb 2026 | Coming soon | 84.9% | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Granite 4.2 8B or MAI-Thinking-1?

MAI-Thinking-1 has the higher overall point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.

### Where is the biggest gap between Granite 4.2 8B and MAI-Thinking-1?

The widest category gap is in knowledge, where the averages are 30.6 for Granite 4.2 8B and 55.6 for MAI-Thinking-1.

### How many benchmarks does Granite 4.2 8B cover on BenchLM?

Granite 4.2 8B currently has 14 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

### How many benchmarks does MAI-Thinking-1 cover on BenchLM?

MAI-Thinking-1 currently has 13 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

## Related Comparisons

- [Granite 4.2 8B vs Granite 4.2 30B](/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-granite-4-2-8b)
- [MAI-Thinking-1 vs Granite 4.2 30B](/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-mai-thinking-1)
- [Granite 4.2 8B vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-granite-4-2-8b)
- [MAI-Thinking-1 vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-mai-thinking-1)

## Explore More

- [Granite 4.2 8B profile](/models/granite-4-2-8b)
- [MAI-Thinking-1 profile](/models/mai-thinking-1)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)