Noometry

Model comparison

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs MiniMax-M2.1

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.7 to 38.9 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2.1 costs 8.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 22 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview Google

56.7

Rank #23 Confirmed

MiniMax-M2.1 MiniMax

38.9

Rank #178 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 22 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview scores higher in 9 categories and MiniMax-M2.1 in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads 71.7 to 16.6.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 97.4% for Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview and 11.2% for MiniMax-M2.1.
  • MiniMax-M2.1 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $12 for Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview.
  • Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 205K.
  • MiniMax-M2.1 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 3.1 Pro PreviewMiniMax-M2.1
ProviderGoogleMiniMax
Noometry Index56.738.9
Released2026-02-192025-12-23
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M205K
Max output66K131K
Input $ / M tokens$2$0.30
Output $ / M tokens$12$1.20
Results tracked7122

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 42.5 (#99), MiniMax-M2.1: 40.4 (#143)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena WebDev14471384
LMArena Coding14841421
ALE-Bench1,161623.83
SWE-bench Verified75.6%—
DeepSWE11.7%—
SciCode58.9%—
GSO22.6%—
WeirdML72.1%—
MirrorCode8.9%—
AlgoTune2.02—

Agentic & Tool Use Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 37.7 (#34), MiniMax-M2.1: 27.9 (#98)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewMiniMax-M2.1
Terminal-Bench80.2%36.6%
APEX-Agents35.3%—
τ²-bench Banking26%—
DeepResearch Bench47.8%—
PostTrainBench22%—
BALROG57%—
ExploitBench26.1%—
GBAEval0.8%—
GDP.pdf17%—
LMArena Search1211—
METR Time Horizons77%—
Vending-Bench 23,774—

Reasoning Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 71.7 (#12), MiniMax-M2.1: 16.6 (#302)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewMiniMax-M2.1
NYT Connections (extended)97.4%11.2%
LMArena Hard Prompts14851411
ARC-AGI-277.1%—
SimpleBench79.6%—
ARC-AGI-198%—
CritPt17.7%—
Chess Puzzles55%—
EnigmaEval36.8%—
Thematic Generalization79.4%—
EBR-Bench14.3%—
Mystery Game Puzzles34%—
DTBench97.1%—
LMCA53.8%—
Epoch Capabilities Index154.77—
ForecastBench59—

Math Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 62.1 (#34), MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#138)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Math14851397
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)59.6%—
FrontierMath Tier 426.8%—
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions86.5%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202595.6%—
ProofBench26%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)36.9%—
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)16.7%—

Knowledge Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 71.8 (#3), MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#147)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewMiniMax-M2.1
Vectara Hallucination Rate10.4%11.8%
LMArena Expert14851431
GPQA Diamond94.4%—
Humanity's Last Exam46.4%—
SimpleQA Verified73.5%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 37.9 (#69), MiniMax-M2.1: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Vision1296—
Blueprint-Bench 226.5%—
Furniture Assembly26.7%—
LMArena Document1444—

Multilingual Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 57.0 (#12), MiniMax-M2.1: 50.0 (#128)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Non-English14771378
LMArena Chinese15291430
LMArena French14871404
LMArena German14911381
LMArena Japanese14931287
LMArena Korean14551298
LMArena Russian14981387
LMArena Spanish14791397

Instruction Following Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 77.0 (#32), MiniMax-M2.1: 73.8 (#112)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Instruction Following14661400

Long Context Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 47.4 (#18), MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#101)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Longer Query14831416
CL-bench20.8%—
CL-bench Life16.9%—

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: 66.1 (#37), MiniMax-M2.1: 58.3 (#120)

BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Text14811392
LMArena Creative Writing14821361
LMArena Multi-Turn14881396
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1491—
EQ-Bench 41142—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview better than MiniMax-M2.1?

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.7 to 38.9 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2.1 costs 8.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview or MiniMax-M2.1?

MiniMax-M2.1 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview lists at $2 and $12.

Is Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview or MiniMax-M2.1 better for coding?

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.5 versus 40.4 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview does, with 1.05M tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview and MiniMax-M2.1 share?

22 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview has 71 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2.1 has 22.

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