Compare / MiniMax-M2 vs MiniMax-M2.1
MiniMax-M2 vs MiniMax-M2.1
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 10 results on 2 sources that measured both models.
Results as of 8 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-08-4199ce0620fe).
MiniMax-M2 or MiniMax-M2.1? The short answer
MiniMax-M2.1 is the newer version at about the same price, and it scores higher (Intelligence Index 20.9 against 18.6): upgrade.
- They cost about the same: $0.52 and $0.52 per million tokens (three input to one output).
- MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 20.9 against 18.6.
- MiniMax-M2.1 is newer: released 23 Dec 2025, against 27 Oct 2025 for MiniMax-M2.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: MiniMax-M2.1 does better for reasoning and knowledge and writing.
At a glance
| MiniMax-M2 | MiniMax-M2.1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.30 in · $1.20 out | $0.30 in · $1.20 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $0.52 | $0.52 |
| Cheapest host, blended | $0.45 (Minimax, FP8) | $0.52 (Minimax, FP8) |
| Intelligence Index | 18.6 | 20.9 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | – |
| Context window | 204,800 tokens | 204,800 tokens |
| Released | 27 Oct 2025 | 23 Dec 2025 (newer) |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Developer based in | China | China |
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 case | MiniMax-M2 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls | 152 of 164 | 129 of 164 |
| Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge | 111 of 198 | 90 of 198 |
| WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality | 168 of 188 | 106 of 188 |
| Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers | 149 of 152 | 116 of 152 |
Every shared result
Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.
| Measure | MiniMax-M2 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better | 18.6 | 20.9 |
| GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better | 77.7% | 83.0% |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better | 13.7% | 23.2% |
| UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results | ||
| Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better | 17.2 | 41.6 |
| Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better | 73.0% | 31.0% |
| Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better | 0.37 | 0.41 |
Show all 10 results (4 more)
| Measure | MiniMax-M2 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results | ||
| IFBench% of instructions, higher is better | 72.3% | 69.9% |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better | 64.3% | 67.7% |
| Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better | 25.8% | 28.8% |
| τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better | 86.8% | 85.4% |
Quick answers
Is MiniMax-M2 better than MiniMax-M2.1?
MiniMax-M2.1 is the newer version at about the same price, and it scores higher (Intelligence Index 20.9 against 18.6): upgrade.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M2 or MiniMax-M2.1?
They cost about the same: $0.52 and $0.52 per million tokens (three input to one output).
Run MiniMax-M2 and MiniMax-M2.1 on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.