Compare / MiniMax M2.5 vs gpt-oss-20b

MiniMax M2.5 vs gpt-oss-20b

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 16 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

MiniMax M2.5
MiniMax · profile
gpt-oss-20b
OpenAI · profile
Results compared
16
Shared sources
3

MiniMax M2.5 or gpt-oss-20b? The short answer

  • gpt-oss-20b is cheaper: $0.060 against $0.52 per million tokens, 8.7 times less.
  • MiniMax M2.5 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 22.8 against 10.0.
  • On our business benchmarks, MiniMax M2.5 ranks higher for reasoning and knowledge and writing.
  • On our business benchmarks, gpt-oss-20b ranks higher for agents and tool use.

At a glance

MiniMax M2.5gpt-oss-20b
Price per million tokens$0.30 in · $1.20 out$0.030 in · $0.15 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.52$0.060
Cheapest host, blended$0.44 (Venice)$0.036 (Darkbloom, FP8)
Intelligence Index22.810.0
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second–249
Context window204,800 tokens131,072 tokens
WeightsOpenOpen
Developer based inChinathe US

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 M2.5gpt-oss-20b
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 132 of 161 124 of 161
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 80 of 195 134 of 195
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 112 of 187 170 of 187
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 103 of 153 not measured

Every shared result

BenchmarkMetricMiniMax M2.5gpt-oss-20b
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedBusiness, management and financeArena rating 1,4001,323
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedCreative writingArena rating 1,3571,240
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedExpert promptsArena rating 1,4251,314
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedInstruction followingArena rating 1,3811,281
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedOverallArena rating 1,3911,318
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedWriting, literature and languageArena rating 1,3691,275
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score 22.810.0
Artificial AnalysisreportedGPQA Diamond% of questions 84.8%68.8%
Artificial AnalysisreportedHumanity's Last Exam% of questions 20.5%11.0%
Artificial AnalysisreportedIFBench% of instructions 71.6%65.1%
Artificial AnalysisreportedLong-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions 73.3%34.7%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench Hard% of tasks 34.8%10.6%
Artificial AnalysisreportedΤ²-bench telecom% of tasks 95.3%60.2%
UGI LeaderboardreportedRequested-length error% off the requested word count 41.0%98.0%
UGI LeaderboardreportedStyle adherencescore from 0 to 1 0.380.31
UGI LeaderboardreportedWriting scorescore out of 100 41.724.6

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 M2.5 better than gpt-oss-20b?

It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, MiniMax M2.5 ranks higher for reasoning and knowledge and writing; gpt-oss-20b ranks higher for agents and tool use.

Which is cheaper, MiniMax M2.5 or gpt-oss-20b?

gpt-oss-20b costs $0.060 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $0.52 for MiniMax M2.5.

Run MiniMax M2.5 and gpt-oss-20b on your own prompt

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