Model comparison

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs MiniMax-M2.5

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.8 to 38.1 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2.5 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. 25 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite

Google

41.8

Rank #113 Confirmed

MiniMax-M2.5

MiniMax

38.1

Rank #181 Confirmed

Summary

They share 25 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher in 6 categories and MiniMax-M2.5 in 3 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in knowledge, where Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads 50.0 to 38.6.
The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 60.4% for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and 16.8% for MiniMax-M2.5.
MiniMax-M2.5 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-M2.5 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and MiniMax-M2.5 specifications
	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.5
Provider	Google	MiniMax
Noometry Index	41.8	38.1
Released	2026-07-21	2026-02-12
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	38	33

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Category by category

Coding MiniMax-M2.5 leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 42.1 (#96), MiniMax-M2.5: 47.9 (#53)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.5
LMArena WebDev	1440	1386
LMArena Coding	1455	1380
ALE-Bench	765.27	618.17
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)	—	75.8%
SWE-bench Multilingual	—	68.3%
SciCode	41.3%	—
WeirdML	39%	—

Agentic & Tool Use MiniMax-M2.5 leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 28.6 (#82), MiniMax-M2.5: 30.2 (#70)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.5
Terminal-Bench	—	42.7%
GDP.pdf	10%	—
Vending-Bench 2	—	-23.16

Reasoning Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 27.8 (#95), MiniMax-M2.5: 17.6 (#281)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.5
ARC-AGI-2	10.3%	4.9%
NYT Connections (extended)	60.4%	16.8%
ARC-AGI-1	53.5%	63.7%
LMArena Hard Prompts	1441	1372
Epoch Capabilities Index	145.12	146.68
Kagi LLM Benchmark	—	55.2%
CritPt	0%	—
Chess Puzzles	22%	—
Mystery Game Puzzles	19%	—
DTBench	83.5%	—
LMCA	37.6%	—

Math Too close to call

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.7 (#245), MiniMax-M2.5: 25.8 (#242)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.5
ProofBench	13%	4%
LMArena Math	1431	1378
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)	26%	—
FrontierMath Tier 4	0%	—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	71.1%	—

Knowledge Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 50.0 (#66), MiniMax-M2.5: 38.6 (#132)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.5
LMArena Expert	1430	1378
GPQA Diamond	83.3%	—
Vectara Hallucination Rate	—	9.1%

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 40.3 (#38), MiniMax-M2.5: —

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.5
LMArena Vision	1266	—

Multilingual Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 53.8 (#59), MiniMax-M2.5: 47.3 (#147)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.5
LMArena Non-English	1428	1338
LMArena Chinese	1467	1392
LMArena French	1452	1363
LMArena German	1454	1361
LMArena Japanese	1428	1169
LMArena Korean	1406	1232
LMArena Russian	1443	1359
LMArena Spanish	1440	1354

Instruction Following Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 75.0 (#77), MiniMax-M2.5: 71.7 (#143)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.5
LMArena Instruction Following	1420	1353

Long Context Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 43.8 (#80), MiniMax-M2.5: 37.4 (#211)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.5
LMArena Longer Query	1435	1367
CL-bench	—	11.4%
CL-bench Life	—	6.3%

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 64.4 (#55), MiniMax-M2.5: 54.1 (#149)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite	MiniMax-M2.5
LMArena Text	1436	1359
LMArena Creative Writing	1419	1331
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	1559	1361
LMArena Multi-Turn	1445	1364

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite better than MiniMax-M2.5?

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or MiniMax-M2.5?

MiniMax-M2.5 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-M2.5 better for coding?

MiniMax-M2.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 47.9 versus 42.1 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-M2.5 share?

25 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has 38 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2.5 has 33.