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.

Inkling-Small Thinking Machines Lab

46.5

Rank #63 Confirmed

MiniMax-M2.1 MiniMax

38.9

Rank #178 Confirmed

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 and MiniMax-M2.1 specifications
Inkling-SmallMiniMax-M2.1
ProviderThinking Machines LabMiniMax
Noometry Index46.538.9
Released2026-07-152025-12-23
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window524K205K
Max output1.05M131K
Input $ / M tokens$0.45$0.30
Output $ / M tokens$1.20$1.20
Results tracked3322

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Category by category

Coding Inkling-Small leads

Inkling-Small: 43.6 (#85), MiniMax-M2.1: 40.4 (#143)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkInkling-SmallMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena WebDev14091384
LMArena Coding14511421
SciCode48.7%—
ALE-Bench—623.83

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Inkling-Small: —, MiniMax-M2.1: 27.9 (#98)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkInkling-SmallMiniMax-M2.1
Terminal-Bench—36.6%

Reasoning Inkling-Small leads

Inkling-Small: 38.6 (#63), MiniMax-M2.1: 16.6 (#302)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkInkling-SmallMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Hard Prompts14231411
ARC-AGI-240.1%—
NYT Connections (extended)—11.2%
ARC-AGI-184%—
CritPt8.3%—
Chess Puzzles18%—
Mystery Game Puzzles6%—
Epoch Capabilities Index150.15—

Math Inkling-Small leads

Inkling-Small: 45.1 (#77), MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#138)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkInkling-SmallMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Math14591397
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)46.3%—
FrontierMath Tier 417.1%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202590%—
ProofBench6%—

Knowledge Inkling-Small leads

Inkling-Small: 48.2 (#77), MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#147)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkInkling-SmallMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Expert14421431
GPQA Diamond88.5%—
SimpleQA Verified19.1%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate—11.8%

Multimodal Not comparable

Inkling-Small: 39.1 (#62), MiniMax-M2.1: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkInkling-SmallMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Vision1235—

Multilingual Inkling-Small leads

Inkling-Small: 51.7 (#104), MiniMax-M2.1: 50.0 (#128)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkInkling-SmallMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Non-English14021378
LMArena Chinese14651430
LMArena French14361404
LMArena German14051381
LMArena Japanese14051287
LMArena Korean13631298
LMArena Russian13911387
LMArena Spanish14281397

Instruction Following Too close to call

Inkling-Small: 73.8 (#114), MiniMax-M2.1: 73.8 (#112)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkInkling-SmallMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Instruction Following13991400

Long Context Too close to call

Inkling-Small: 42.7 (#118), MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#101)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkInkling-SmallMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Longer Query14011416

Writing & Preference Inkling-Small leads

Inkling-Small: 59.6 (#107), MiniMax-M2.1: 58.3 (#120)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkInkling-SmallMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Text14141392
LMArena Creative Writing13311361
LMArena Multi-Turn14181396
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1491—

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.

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