Model comparison

Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs MiniMax M1

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.9 to 40.3 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax M1 costs 4.2× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 12 shared benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 Anthropic

61.9

Rank #10 Confirmed

MiniMax M1

MiniMax

40.3

Rank #150 Confirmed

Summary

They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher in 8 categories and MiniMax M1 in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in math, where Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads 87.9 to 37.5.
MiniMax M1 is cheaper at $0.55 / $2.20 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $10 for Claude Sonnet 5.5.
MiniMax M1 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Claude Sonnet 5.5 and MiniMax M1 specifications
	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax M1
Provider	Anthropic	MiniMax
Noometry Index	61.9	40.3
Released	2026-09-28	2025-06-13
Weights	Proprietary	Open
Context window	1M	1M
Max output	128K	40K
Input $ / M tokens	$2	$0.55
Output $ / M tokens	$10	$2.20
Results tracked	32	18

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Category by category

Coding Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 67.3 (#6), MiniMax M1: 39.9 (#153)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax M1
LMArena Coding	1513	1359
FrontierCode	52.1%	—
CursorBench	55.5%	—
LMArena WebDev	1774	—
FrontierSWE	61.9%	—
SciCode	61%	—
ALE-Bench	1,819	—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.0 (#16), MiniMax M1: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax M1
APEX-Agents	75.5%	—

Reasoning Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 54.0 (#28), MiniMax M1: 26.9 (#126)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax M1
LMArena Hard Prompts	1495	1339
NYT Connections (extended)	80.5%	—
CritPt	31.4%	—
Mystery Game Puzzles	65%	—
Epoch Capabilities Index	165.03	—

Math Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 87.9 (#6), MiniMax M1: 37.5 (#151)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax M1
LMArena Math	1510	1361
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)	88.8%	—
FrontierMath Tier 4	80.5%	—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	100%	—
ProofBench	100%	—
FrontierMath Erdős	2.9%	—

Knowledge Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#12), MiniMax M1: 36.4 (#170)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax M1
LMArena Expert	1540	1317
GPQA Diamond	95.6%	—
SimpleQA Verified	46.5%	—

Multimodal Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 51.5 (#6), MiniMax M1: —

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax M1
LMArena Vision	1289	—
Furniture Assembly	75%	—

Multilingual Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 55.3 (#30), MiniMax M1: 45.8 (#163)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax M1
LMArena Non-English	1452	1319
LMArena Chinese	1522	1360
LMArena Russian	1451	1329
LMArena French	—	1370
LMArena German	—	1350
LMArena Japanese	—	1217
LMArena Korean	—	1266
LMArena Spanish	—	1353

Instruction Following Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 78.3 (#11), MiniMax M1: 69.3 (#174)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax M1
LMArena Instruction Following	1495	1312

Long Context Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.9 (#28), MiniMax M1: 41.4 (#141)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax M1
LMArena Longer Query	1498	1326
Fiction.LiveBench	—	69.4%

Writing & Preference Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#40), MiniMax M1: 53.1 (#161)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax M1
LMArena Text	1471	1343
LMArena Creative Writing	1465	1298
LMArena Multi-Turn	1474	1335

Frequently asked questions

Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 better than MiniMax M1?

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or MiniMax M1?

MiniMax M1 is cheaper. It lists at $0.55 per million input tokens and $2.20 per million output tokens; Claude Sonnet 5.5 lists at $2 and $10.

Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 or MiniMax M1 better for coding?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 67.3 versus 39.9 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 1M tokens.

How many benchmarks do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and MiniMax M1 share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Claude Sonnet 5.5 has 32 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax M1 has 18.