Model comparison

Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs MiniMax-M2

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.9 to 37.4 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2 costs 7.6× 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 11, 2026. 14 shared benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 Anthropic

61.9

Rank #10 Confirmed

MiniMax-M2

MiniMax

37.4

Rank #204 Confirmed

Summary

They share 14 benchmarks with published results for both. Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher in 9 categories and MiniMax-M2 in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in math, where Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads 87.9 to 37.3.
The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 80.5% for Claude Sonnet 5.5 and 14.8% for MiniMax-M2.
MiniMax-M2 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $10 for Claude Sonnet 5.5.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 205K.
MiniMax-M2 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Claude Sonnet 5.5 and MiniMax-M2 specifications
	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax-M2
Provider	Anthropic	MiniMax
Noometry Index	61.9	37.4
Released	2026-09-28	2025-10-27
Weights	Proprietary	Open
Context window	1M	205K
Max output	128K	131K
Input $ / M tokens	$2	$0.30
Output $ / M tokens	$10	$1.20
Results tracked	32	21

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Category by category

Coding Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 67.3 (#6), MiniMax-M2: 39.3 (#159)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax-M2
LMArena WebDev	1774	1297
LMArena Coding	1513	1370
FrontierCode	52.1%	—
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)	—	61%
CursorBench	55.5%	—
FrontierSWE	61.9%	—
SciCode	61%	—
ALE-Bench	1,819	—

Agentic & Tool Use Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.0 (#16), MiniMax-M2: 25.1 (#109)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax-M2
Terminal-Bench	—	30%
APEX-Agents	75.5%	—
Vending-Bench 2	—	160.6

Reasoning Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 54.0 (#28), MiniMax-M2: 19.4 (#258)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax-M2
NYT Connections (extended)	80.5%	14.8%
LMArena Hard Prompts	1495	1357
Kagi LLM Benchmark	—	57.8%
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-M2: 37.3 (#160)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax-M2
LMArena Math	1510	1352
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-M2: 37.0 (#163)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax-M2
LMArena Expert	1540	1337
GPQA Diamond	95.6%	—
SimpleQA Verified	46.5%	—

Multimodal Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 51.5 (#6), MiniMax-M2: —

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax-M2
LMArena Vision	1289	—
Furniture Assembly	75%	—

Multilingual Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 55.3 (#30), MiniMax-M2: 45.3 (#171)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax-M2
LMArena Non-English	1452	1313
LMArena Chinese	1522	1366
LMArena Russian	1451	1331
LMArena French	—	1335
LMArena German	—	1355
LMArena Spanish	—	1326

Instruction Following Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 78.3 (#11), MiniMax-M2: 70.2 (#166)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax-M2
LMArena Instruction Following	1495	1328

Long Context Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.9 (#28), MiniMax-M2: 40.5 (#153)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax-M2
LMArena Longer Query	1498	1331

Writing & Preference Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#40), MiniMax-M2: 53.0 (#162)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	MiniMax-M2
LMArena Text	1471	1340
LMArena Creative Writing	1465	1286
LMArena Multi-Turn	1474	1361

Frequently asked questions

Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 better than MiniMax-M2?

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or MiniMax-M2?

MiniMax-M2 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Claude Sonnet 5.5 lists at $2 and $10.

Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 or MiniMax-M2 better for coding?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 67.3 versus 39.3 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 does, with 1M tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and MiniMax-M2 share?

14 benchmarks have published results for both models. Claude Sonnet 5.5 has 32 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2 has 21.