Compare / MiniMax M2.1 vs Mistral Large 3 2512

MiniMax M2.1 vs Mistral Large 3 2512

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 12 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

MiniMax M2.1
MiniMax · profile
Mistral Large 3 2512
Mistral · profile
Results compared
12
Shared sources
3

MiniMax M2.1 or Mistral Large 3 2512? The short answer

  • MiniMax M2.1 is cheaper: $0.52 against $0.75 per million tokens, 30% less.
  • MiniMax M2.1 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 20.9 against 9.3.
  • On our business benchmarks, MiniMax M2.1 ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and sticking to the facts.
  • On our business benchmarks, Mistral Large 3 2512 ranks higher for writing.

At a glance

MiniMax M2.1Mistral Large 3 2512
Price per million tokens$0.30 in · $1.20 out$0.50 in · $1.50 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.52$0.75
Cheapest host, blended$0.52 (Novita, FP8)$0.75 (Mistral)
Intelligence Index20.99.3
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second–80
Context window204,800 tokens262,144 tokens
WeightsOpenClosed
Developer based inChinaFrance

Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.

Which is better for what

Each model's rank among models available today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. The better rank is in green.

Use caseMiniMax M2.1Mistral Large 3 2512
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 125 of 161 131 of 161
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 86 of 195 155 of 195
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 106 of 187 97 of 187
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 116 of 153 120 of 153

Every shared result

BenchmarkMetricMiniMax M2.1Mistral Large 3 2512
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score 20.99.30
Artificial AnalysisreportedGPQA Diamond% of questions 83.0%68.0%
Artificial AnalysisreportedHumanity's Last Exam% of questions 23.2%4.2%
Artificial AnalysisreportedIFBench% of instructions 69.9%36.2%
Artificial AnalysisreportedLong-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions 67.7%36.0%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench Hard% of tasks 28.8%15.9%
Artificial AnalysisreportedΤ²-bench telecom% of tasks 85.4%24.6%
UGI LeaderboardreportedRequested-length error% off the requested word count 31.0%15.0%
UGI LeaderboardreportedStyle adherencescore from 0 to 1 0.410.38
UGI LeaderboardreportedWriting scorescore out of 100 41.641.6
Vectara Hallucination LeaderboardreportedAnswer rate% of documents 98.5%98.8%
Vectara Hallucination LeaderboardreportedHallucination rate% of summaries 11.8%14.5%

Bold green marks the better value on that metric. Where a source reports ranges that overlap, the difference may not be meaningful; see the benchmark page for ranges.

Quick answers

Is MiniMax M2.1 better than Mistral Large 3 2512?

It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, MiniMax M2.1 ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and sticking to the facts; Mistral Large 3 2512 ranks higher for writing.

Which is cheaper, MiniMax M2.1 or Mistral Large 3 2512?

MiniMax M2.1 costs $0.52 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $0.75 for Mistral Large 3 2512.

Run MiniMax M2.1 and Mistral Large 3 2512 on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.