# Granite 4.2 8B vs Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Granite 4.2 8B and Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/granite-4-2-8b-vs-mellum2-1-12b-a2-5b-thinking
- Last updated: October 8, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 4
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5.8

## Quick Verdict

Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking leads by point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence. Choose using the category evidence and your own workload tests.

## Summary

- Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking has the higher overall point estimate 37 to 31.75. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is SWE-bench Pro in Coding, with scores of 19.1% and 28%.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Granite 4.2 8B | Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | IBM | JetBrains |
| Type | Open Weight | Open Weight |
| Reasoning | Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Context | 128K | 128K |
| Overall Score | 31.75 | null |
| Benchmarks Covered | 14 | 7 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $0.00 / $0.00 | $0.00 / $0.00 |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 14.6 (Estimated · #109/122)
- Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 20.6% | 17.4% | Granite 4.2 8B |
| τ³-bench results | 58.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| BFCL v4 | 52.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 17.5 (Estimated · #126/146)
- Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 47.7% | 47% | Granite 4.2 8B |
| SWE-bench Pro | 19.1% | 28% | Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking |
| SWE Multilingual | 30.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 20.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench v6 | 73.2% | 82.0% | Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking |
| SciCode | 36.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 53.2 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)
- Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking public-lane score: Coming soon

### Knowledge

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 28.8 (Supported · #144/174)
- Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 64.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro | 74.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Redux | Coming soon | 87.8% | Coming soon |
| GPQA-D | Coming soon | 64.6% | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 82.1 (#50/125)
- Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 79.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| IFEval | Coming soon | 90.6% | Coming soon |

### Mathematics

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: Coming soon
- Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| AIME 2025 | 86.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| HMMT Feb 2025 | 78.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Granite 4.2 8B or Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking?

Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking has the higher overall point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.

### 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 Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking cover on BenchLM?

Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking currently has 7 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)
- [Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking vs Granite 4.2 30B](/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-mellum2-1-12b-a2-5b-thinking)
- [Granite 4.2 8B vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-granite-4-2-8b)
- [Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-mellum2-1-12b-a2-5b-thinking)

## Explore More

- [Granite 4.2 8B profile](/models/granite-4-2-8b)
- [Mellum2.1-12B-A2.5B-Thinking profile](/models/mellum2-1-12b-a2-5b-thinking)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)