Compare / Amazon vs MiniMax

AI labs compared · October 2026

Amazon vs MiniMax: which AI lab is ahead?

Each lab's best model on sale goes head to head on every kind of work we measure, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. 9 models in all; a lab is only as good as the model you would actually pick from it.

4 models on sale with our resultsAmazon Best: Nova 2 Lite · newest: Nova 2 Lite
5 models on sale with our resultsMiniMax Best: MiniMax-M3 · newest: MiniMax-M3
Amazon wins 1MiniMax wins 3

Kinds of work led by each lab's best model there, of the 4 both are measured on.

Results as of 8 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-08-4199ce0620fe). Models on sale means listed on OpenRouter today.

Amazon or MiniMax? The short answer

MiniMax is ahead: its best models beat Amazon's in 3 of the 4 kinds of work both are measured on; Amazon leads in 1.

  • Pick Amazon for sticking to the facts.
  • Pick MiniMax for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.
  • Prices start at $0.061 per million tokens for Amazon (Nova Micro 1.0) and $0.52 for MiniMax (MiniMax-M3).

Head to head

13.4Nova 2 Lite
Best Intelligence Index
29.2MiniMax-M3
$0.85Nova 2 Lite
Flagship price, per million tokens
$0.52MiniMax-M3
$0.061Nova Micro 1.0
Cheapest model, per million tokens
$0.52MiniMax-M3
4
Models on sale with our results
5

Each line names the model behind the number. Prices are blended, three input tokens to one output, at the developer's list price where we have read it; see every model's price. Intelligence Index from Artificial Analysis; overall score from our leaderboard.

Which lab is better for what

For each kind of work, each lab's best model there and its rank among every model on sale. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.

Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 133 of 164Nova 2 Lite 74 of 164MiniMax-M3
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects not measured 39 of 51MiniMax-M3
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 116 of 198Nova 2 Lite 38 of 198MiniMax-M3
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 169 of 188Nova 2 Lite 66 of 188MiniMax-M3
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 9 of 152Nova Pro 1.0 95 of 152MiniMax-M3

Every model, by intelligence and price

Each dot is a model on sale with an Intelligence Index from Artificial Analysis. Up is smarter; left is cheaper. Hover or tap a dot for its name.

AmazonMiniMax

010203040 $0.01$0.1$1$10 Price per million tokens, blended (log scale) Intelligence Index Nova 2 LiteMiniMax-M3MiniMax-M2.7MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax-M2.1MiniMax-M2

Benchmark by benchmark

The headline result of every benchmark both labs have models on: each lab's best model and its rank among the models on sale. Green marks the better rank.

MeasureAmazonMiniMax
Agents and tool use
Artificial Analysis · Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 16.1%Nova 2 Lite · 87 of 11565.2%MiniMax-M3 · 37 of 115
Reasoning and knowledge
Artificial Analysis · Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 13.4Nova 2 Lite · 119 of 19829.2MiniMax-M3 · 50 of 198
Artificial Analysis · Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 11.6%Nova 2 Lite · 124 of 19739.0%MiniMax-M3 · 41 of 197
Artificial Analysis · GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 81.1%Nova 2 Lite · 92 of 18792.9%MiniMax-M3 · 14 of 187
Sticking to the facts
Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard · Hallucination rate · Vectara% of summaries, lower is better 5.1%Nova 2 Lite · 6 of 799.1%MiniMax-M2.5 · 34 of 79
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 1,380Nova 2 Lite · 103 of 1131,434MiniMax-M3 · 69 of 113
Writing
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 1,335Nova 2 Lite · 138 of 1661,440MiniMax-M3 · 63 of 166
UGI Leaderboard · Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 23.5Nova 2 Lite · 131 of 13841.7MiniMax-M2.5 · 80 of 138

Quick answers

Is Amazon or MiniMax better?

MiniMax is ahead: its best models beat Amazon's in 3 of the 4 kinds of work both are measured on; Amazon leads in 1.

What is Amazon's best model?

Nova 2 Lite: 13.4 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

What is MiniMax's best model?

MiniMax-M3: 29.2 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Amazon or MiniMax?

MiniMax: its best model there, MiniMax-M3, ranks 74 of 164 models on sale, against 133 for Amazon's Nova 2 Lite.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Amazon or MiniMax?

MiniMax: its best model there, MiniMax-M3, ranks 38 of 198 models on sale, against 116 for Amazon's Nova 2 Lite.

Which is better for writing, Amazon or MiniMax?

MiniMax: its best model there, MiniMax-M3, ranks 66 of 188 models on sale, against 169 for Amazon's Nova 2 Lite.

Which is cheaper, Amazon or MiniMax?

Amazon's cheapest model with results, Nova Micro 1.0, costs $0.061 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $0.52 for MiniMax-M3 from MiniMax.

Other labs compared

Which model is best for your product?

Benchmarks aren't your data. We test the models from Amazon, MiniMax and the rest on your own tasks, with the cost of every answer.

Talk to usSee the leaderboard