Model comparison

GPT-4.1 nano vs MiniMax-M2.1

MiniMax-M2.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.9 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index. GPT-4.1 nano costs 3.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M2.1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 14 shared benchmarks.

GPT-4.1 nano OpenAI

27.9

Rank #327 Confirmed

MiniMax-M2.1

MiniMax

38.9

Rank #178 Confirmed

Summary

They share 14 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-4.1 nano scores higher in 0 categories and MiniMax-M2.1 in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in long context, where MiniMax-M2.1 leads 43.2 to 23.7.
GPT-4.1 nano is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.40 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for MiniMax-M2.1.
GPT-4.1 nano accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 205K.
MiniMax-M2.1 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GPT-4.1 nano and MiniMax-M2.1 specifications
	GPT-4.1 nano	MiniMax-M2.1
Provider	OpenAI	MiniMax
Noometry Index	27.9	38.9
Released	2025-04-14	2025-12-23
Weights	Proprietary	Open
Context window	1.05M	205K
Max output	33K	131K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.10	$0.30
Output $ / M tokens	$0.40	$1.20
Results tracked	38	22

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Category by category

Coding MiniMax-M2.1 leads

GPT-4.1 nano: 24.1 (#330), MiniMax-M2.1: 40.4 (#143)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	GPT-4.1 nano	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Coding	1306	1421
Aider Polyglot	8.9%	—
LMArena WebDev	—	1384
SciCode	25.9%	—
WeirdML	19%	—
ALE-Bench	—	623.83

Agentic & Tool Use MiniMax-M2.1 leads

GPT-4.1 nano: 26.5 (#104), MiniMax-M2.1: 27.9 (#98)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	GPT-4.1 nano	MiniMax-M2.1
Terminal-Bench	—	36.6%
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard	33%	—

Reasoning MiniMax-M2.1 leads

GPT-4.1 nano: 8.5 (#349), MiniMax-M2.1: 16.6 (#302)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	GPT-4.1 nano	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Hard Prompts	1286	1411
ARC-AGI-2	0%	—
Kagi LLM Benchmark	33.3%	—
NYT Connections (extended)	—	11.2%
ARC-AGI-1	0%	—
CritPt	0%	—
DTBench	52.5%	—
LMCA	5.5%	—
Epoch Capabilities Index	129.62	—

Math MiniMax-M2.1 leads

GPT-4.1 nano: 26.9 (#252), MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#138)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	GPT-4.1 nano	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Math	1274	1397
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	28.9%	—
Omni-MATH	36.7%	—
MATH Level 5	70%	—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)	1%	—

Knowledge MiniMax-M2.1 leads

GPT-4.1 nano: 21.8 (#273), MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#147)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	GPT-4.1 nano	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Expert	1272	1431
GPQA Diamond	48.9%	—
SimpleQA Verified	6%	—
MMLU-Pro	55%	—
Vectara Hallucination Rate	—	11.8%
GPQA (HELM)	50.7%	—

Multimodal Not comparable

GPT-4.1 nano: 29.2 (#113), MiniMax-M2.1: —

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	GPT-4.1 nano	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Vision	1063	—

Multilingual MiniMax-M2.1 leads

GPT-4.1 nano: 41.6 (#205), MiniMax-M2.1: 50.0 (#128)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	GPT-4.1 nano	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Non-English	1260	1378
LMArena Chinese	1270	1430
LMArena German	1288	1381
LMArena Japanese	1198	1287
LMArena Russian	1261	1387
LMArena French	—	1404
LMArena Korean	—	1298
LMArena Spanish	—	1397

Instruction Following MiniMax-M2.1 leads

GPT-4.1 nano: 67.8 (#193), MiniMax-M2.1: 73.8 (#112)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	GPT-4.1 nano	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Instruction Following	1267	1400
IFEval	84.3%	—

Long Context MiniMax-M2.1 leads

GPT-4.1 nano: 23.7 (#296), MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#101)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	GPT-4.1 nano	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Longer Query	1283	1416
Fiction.LiveBench	25%	—

Writing & Preference MiniMax-M2.1 leads

GPT-4.1 nano: 40.5 (#243), MiniMax-M2.1: 58.3 (#120)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	GPT-4.1 nano	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Text	1285	1392
LMArena Creative Writing	1260	1361
LMArena Multi-Turn	1277	1396
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	946	—
WildBench	81.2%	—

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-4.1 nano better than MiniMax-M2.1?

Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 nano or MiniMax-M2.1?

GPT-4.1 nano is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.40 per million output tokens; MiniMax-M2.1 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.

Is GPT-4.1 nano or MiniMax-M2.1 better for coding?

MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.4 versus 24.1 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

GPT-4.1 nano does, with 1.05M tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks do GPT-4.1 nano and MiniMax-M2.1 share?

14 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-4.1 nano has 38 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2.1 has 22.