Model comparison
Inkling-Small vs MiniMax-M2.1
Inkling-Small is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.5 to 38.9 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.
Summary
- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Inkling-Small scores higher in 6 categories and MiniMax-M2.1 in 2 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Inkling-Small leads 38.6 to 16.6.
- MiniMax-M2.1 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.45 / $1.20 for Inkling-Small.
- Inkling-Small accepts more context: 524K tokens versus 205K.
Side by side
| Inkling-Small | MiniMax-M2.1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Thinking Machines Lab | MiniMax |
| Noometry Index | 46.5 | 38.9 |
| Released | 2026-07-15 | 2025-12-23 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 524K | 205K |
| Max output | 1.05M | 131K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.45 | $0.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.20 | $1.20 |
| Results tracked | 33 | 22 |
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Category by category
Coding Inkling-Small leads
Inkling-Small: 43.6 (#85), MiniMax-M2.1: 40.4 (#143)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1409 | 1384 |
| LMArena Coding | 1451 | 1421 |
| SciCode | 48.7% | — |
| ALE-Bench | — | 623.83 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Inkling-Small: —, MiniMax-M2.1: 27.9 (#98)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 36.6% |
Reasoning Inkling-Small leads
Inkling-Small: 38.6 (#63), MiniMax-M2.1: 16.6 (#302)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1423 | 1411 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 40.1% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 11.2% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 84% | — |
| CritPt | 8.3% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 18% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 6% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 150.15 | — |
Math Inkling-Small leads
Inkling-Small: 45.1 (#77), MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#138)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1459 | 1397 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 46.3% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 17.1% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 90% | — |
| ProofBench | 6% | — |
Knowledge Inkling-Small leads
Inkling-Small: 48.2 (#77), MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#147)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1442 | 1431 |
| GPQA Diamond | 88.5% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 19.1% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 11.8% |
Multimodal Not comparable
Inkling-Small: 39.1 (#62), MiniMax-M2.1: —
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1235 | — |
Multilingual Inkling-Small leads
Inkling-Small: 51.7 (#104), MiniMax-M2.1: 50.0 (#128)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1402 | 1378 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1465 | 1430 |
| LMArena French | 1436 | 1404 |
| LMArena German | 1405 | 1381 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1405 | 1287 |
| LMArena Korean | 1363 | 1298 |
| LMArena Russian | 1391 | 1387 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1428 | 1397 |
Instruction Following Too close to call
Inkling-Small: 73.8 (#114), MiniMax-M2.1: 73.8 (#112)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1399 | 1400 |
Long Context Too close to call
Inkling-Small: 42.7 (#118), MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#101)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1401 | 1416 |
Writing & Preference Inkling-Small leads
Inkling-Small: 59.6 (#107), MiniMax-M2.1: 58.3 (#120)
| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1414 | 1392 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1361 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1418 | 1396 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1491 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Inkling-Small better than MiniMax-M2.1?
Inkling-Small is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.5 to 38.9 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Inkling-Small 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; Inkling-Small lists at $0.45 and $1.20.
Is Inkling-Small or MiniMax-M2.1 better for coding?
Inkling-Small scores higher on coding benchmarks: 43.6 versus 40.4 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Inkling-Small does, with 524K tokens against 205K.
How many benchmarks do Inkling-Small and MiniMax-M2.1 share?
18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Inkling-Small has 33 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2.1 has 22.