Noometry

Model comparison

Gemma 3 4B vs MiniMax-M2.1

MiniMax-M2.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.9 to 28.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 10× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M2.1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 13 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 3 4B Google

28.1

Rank #326 Confirmed

MiniMax-M2.1 MiniMax

38.9

Rank #178 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 13 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 4B scores higher in 0 categories and MiniMax-M2.1 in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in knowledge, where MiniMax-M2.1 leads 38.3 to 11.8.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is Vectara Hallucination Rate: 6.4% for Gemma 3 4B and 11.8% for MiniMax-M2.1.
  • Gemma 3 4B is cheaper at $0.04 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for MiniMax-M2.1.
  • MiniMax-M2.1 accepts more context: 205K tokens versus 131K.

Side by side

Gemma 3 4BMiniMax-M2.1
ProviderGoogleMiniMax
Noometry Index28.138.9
Released2025-03-122025-12-23
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window131K205K
Max output4K131K
Input $ / M tokens$0.04$0.30
Output $ / M tokens$0.08$1.20
Results tracked2222

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Category by category

Coding MiniMax-M2.1 leads

Gemma 3 4B: 35.9 (#215), MiniMax-M2.1: 40.4 (#143)

BenchmarkGemma 3 4BMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Coding12301421
LMArena WebDev—1384
ALE-Bench—623.83

Agentic & Tool Use MiniMax-M2.1 leads

Gemma 3 4B: 20.9 (#142), MiniMax-M2.1: 27.9 (#98)

BenchmarkGemma 3 4BMiniMax-M2.1
Terminal-Bench—36.6%
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard19.6%—

Reasoning MiniMax-M2.1 leads

Gemma 3 4B: 13.2 (#335), MiniMax-M2.1: 16.6 (#302)

BenchmarkGemma 3 4BMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Hard Prompts12531411
Kagi LLM Benchmark25.2%—
NYT Connections (extended)—11.2%
Chess Puzzles0%—
DTBench50.9%—
LMCA2.8%—
Epoch Capabilities Index116.02—

Math MiniMax-M2.1 leads

Gemma 3 4B: 16.8 (#292), MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#138)

BenchmarkGemma 3 4BMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Math12391397
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-20257.5%—

Knowledge MiniMax-M2.1 leads

Gemma 3 4B: 11.8 (#299), MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#147)

BenchmarkGemma 3 4BMiniMax-M2.1
Vectara Hallucination Rate6.4%11.8%
LMArena Expert12231431
GPQA Diamond23.2%—

Multilingual MiniMax-M2.1 leads

Gemma 3 4B: 42.5 (#194), MiniMax-M2.1: 50.0 (#128)

BenchmarkGemma 3 4BMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Non-English12731378
LMArena German12811381
LMArena Russian12941387
LMArena Chinese—1430
LMArena French—1404
LMArena Japanese—1287
LMArena Korean—1298
LMArena Spanish—1397

Instruction Following MiniMax-M2.1 leads

Gemma 3 4B: 65.2 (#225), MiniMax-M2.1: 73.8 (#112)

BenchmarkGemma 3 4BMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Instruction Following12391400

Long Context MiniMax-M2.1 leads

Gemma 3 4B: 38.7 (#194), MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#101)

BenchmarkGemma 3 4BMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Longer Query12731416

Writing & Preference MiniMax-M2.1 leads

Gemma 3 4B: 42.0 (#239), MiniMax-M2.1: 58.3 (#120)

BenchmarkGemma 3 4BMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Text12911392
LMArena Creative Writing12711361
LMArena Multi-Turn12551396
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1068—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 3 4B better than MiniMax-M2.1?

MiniMax-M2.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.9 to 28.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 10× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M2.1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 4B or MiniMax-M2.1?

Gemma 3 4B is cheaper. It lists at $0.04 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; MiniMax-M2.1 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.

Is Gemma 3 4B or MiniMax-M2.1 better for coding?

MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.4 versus 35.9 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax-M2.1 does, with 205K tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 4B and MiniMax-M2.1 share?

13 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 4B has 22 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2.1 has 22.

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