Model comparison

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs MiniMax-M2.1

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.5 to 38.9 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2.1 costs 1.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 20 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite

Google

41.5

Rank #133 Confirmed

MiniMax-M2.1

MiniMax

38.9

Rank #178 Confirmed

Summary

They share 20 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher in 7 categories and MiniMax-M2.1 in 2 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in math, where MiniMax-M2.1 leads 38.3 to 25.9.
The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 60.4% for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and 11.2% for MiniMax-M2.1.
MiniMax-M2.1 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $2.50 for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite.
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 205K.
MiniMax-M2.1 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and MiniMax-M2.1 specifications
	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.1
Provider	Google	MiniMax
Noometry Index	41.5	38.9
Released	2026-07-21	2025-12-23
Weights	Proprietary	Open
Context window	1.05M	205K
Max output	66K	131K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.30	$0.30
Output $ / M tokens	$2.50	$1.20
Results tracked	39	22

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 42.4 (#104), MiniMax-M2.1: 40.4 (#143)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena WebDev	1440	1384
LMArena Coding	1453	1421
ALE-Bench	765.27	623.83
SciCode	41.3%	—
WeirdML	39%	—

Agentic & Tool Use MiniMax-M2.1 leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.7 (#107), MiniMax-M2.1: 27.9 (#98)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.1
Terminal-Bench	—	36.6%
APEX-Agents	29.3%	—
GDP.pdf	10%	—

Reasoning Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 27.8 (#114), MiniMax-M2.1: 16.6 (#302)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.1
NYT Connections (extended)	60.4%	11.2%
LMArena Hard Prompts	1441	1411
ARC-AGI-2	10.3%	—
ARC-AGI-1	53.5%	—
CritPt	0%	—
Chess Puzzles	22%	—
Mystery Game Puzzles	19%	—
DTBench	83.5%	—
LMCA	37.6%	—
Epoch Capabilities Index	145.13	—

Math MiniMax-M2.1 leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.9 (#264), MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#138)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Math	1433	1397
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)	26%	—
FrontierMath Tier 4	0%	—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	71.1%	—
ProofBench	13%	—

Knowledge Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 50.1 (#72), MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#147)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Expert	1435	1431
GPQA Diamond	83.3%	—
Vectara Hallucination Rate	—	11.8%

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 41.1 (#40), MiniMax-M2.1: —

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Vision	1268	—

Multilingual Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 53.5 (#63), MiniMax-M2.1: 50.0 (#128)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Non-English	1427	1378
LMArena Chinese	1469	1430
LMArena French	1451	1404
LMArena German	1454	1381
LMArena Japanese	1427	1287
LMArena Korean	1407	1298
LMArena Russian	1443	1387
LMArena Spanish	1442	1397

Instruction Following Too close to call

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 74.8 (#85), MiniMax-M2.1: 73.8 (#112)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Instruction Following	1420	1400

Long Context Too close to call

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 43.9 (#84), MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#101)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Longer Query	1435	1416

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 64.2 (#57), MiniMax-M2.1: 58.3 (#120)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Text	1435	1392
LMArena Creative Writing	1420	1361
LMArena Multi-Turn	1445	1396
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	1559	—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite better than MiniMax-M2.1?

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 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 3.5 Flash Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or MiniMax-M2.1 better for coding?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 40.4 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite does, with 1.05M tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and MiniMax-M2.1 share?

20 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has 39 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2.1 has 22.