Compare / MiniCPM5 2B vs Granite 4.2 3B
MiniCPM5 2B vs Granite 4.2 3B
Updated November 2026
Verdict
MiniCPM5 2B scores higher on the Small LM Index: 57.5 vs 54.8, although their likely ranges overlap, so the lead is not certain. On the 7 benchmarks both labs report, MiniCPM5 2B wins 4 and Granite 4.2 3B wins 3. Both need about 3 GB of memory at 4-bit quantization. Neither model has a hosted API on OpenRouter, so you would run both yourself.
Pick MiniCPM5 2B if…
- you want the strongest model overall
- you build agents that call tools
- you want the more widely used model (more quantized builds and community support)
Pick Granite 4.2 3B if…
- you mostly write code
- you need precise instruction following
Specifications
| MiniCPM5 2B | Granite 4.2 3B | |
|---|---|---|
| Small LM Index | 57.5 (likely 56–59) | 54.8 (likely 51–58) |
| Lab | OpenBMB (MiniCPM) · China | IBM (Granite) · United States |
| Released | 2026-09-06 | 2026-08-07 |
| Parameters | 2.5B (dense) | 3B (dense) |
| Memory at 4-bit | ~2.4 GB | ~3 GB |
| Context window | 131K tokens | 131K tokens |
| Input | text | text |
| Reasoning | Hybrid (thinking on/off) | No thinking |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| API price / 1M tokens | Self-host only | Self-host only |
| Hugging Face downloads (30 days) | 1.1M | 33.8K |
Benchmarks
Higher is better. Bold marks the winner where both labs report a score. ≈ marks the index model's estimate for a score that wasn't reported, ✓ an independent measurement and * a score measured by another lab.
| Benchmark | MiniCPM5 2B | Granite 4.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro Knowledge | 70.8 | 67.8 |
| GPQA Diamond Knowledge | 70.2 | 54.8 |
| Humanity's Last Exam Reasoning | 8.9 | ≈ 8 |
| AIME Math | 86.5 | 78.3 |
| LiveCodeBench Coding | 69.1 | 69.7 |
| SWE-bench Verified Coding | 46.4 | ≈ 38 |
| Terminal-Bench Agentic | 8.6 | — |
| τ²-Bench Agentic | 97.1 | — |
| IFBench Instruction following | 66.3 | 74.3 |
| MMLU Knowledge | 84.7 | — |
| IFEval Instruction following | 86.7 | — |
| BFCL Agentic | 66.6 | 52.4 |
| MATH-500 Math | 94.6 | — |
| HMMT Math | 63.8 | 66.7 |
| AA-LCR Long context | 59.0 | — |
Scores are mostly reported by each lab with its own settings, so small gaps are noise. See the methodology. Open in the interactive comparison to add more models.
Questions
Which is better, MiniCPM5 2B or Granite 4.2 3B?
MiniCPM5 2B scores higher on the Small LM Index: 57.5 vs 54.8, although their likely ranges overlap, so the lead is not certain. On the 7 benchmarks both labs report, MiniCPM5 2B wins 4 and Granite 4.2 3B wins 3.
Which is cheaper to run?
Neither model has a hosted API on OpenRouter, so you would run both yourself. Both need about 3 GB of memory at 4-bit quantization.
Which has the longer context window?
Both have a 131K-token context window.
Can I use MiniCPM5 2B and Granite 4.2 3B commercially?
Both are released under the Apache-2.0 license. Apache 2.0 and MIT allow commercial use; other licenses can add conditions, so read the license before shipping a product.