Model comparison
Kimi K2.5 vs MiniMax-M2.1
Kimi K2.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 48.1 to 38.9 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2.1 costs 1.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K2.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 22 shared benchmarks.
MiniMaxSummary
- They share 22 benchmarks with published results for both. Kimi K2.5 scores higher in 9 categories and MiniMax-M2.1 in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Kimi K2.5 leads 53.6 to 38.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 69.9% for Kimi K2.5 and 11.2% for MiniMax-M2.1.
- MiniMax-M2.1 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.45 / $2.25 for Kimi K2.5.
- Kimi K2.5 accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 205K.
Side by side
| Kimi K2.5 | MiniMax-M2.1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Moonshot AI | MiniMax |
| Noometry Index | 48.1 | 38.9 |
| Released | 2026-01-27 | 2025-12-23 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 262K | 205K |
| Max output | 262K | 131K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.45 | $0.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $2.25 | $1.20 |
| Results tracked | 51 | 22 |
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Category by category
Coding Kimi K2.5 leads
Kimi K2.5: 48.8 (#53), MiniMax-M2.1: 40.4 (#143)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1437 | 1384 |
| LMArena Coding | 1474 | 1421 |
| ALE-Bench | 821.65 | 623.83 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 73.8% | — |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | 70.8% | — |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | 67.3% | — |
| SciCode | 49% | — |
| WeirdML | 45.6% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Kimi K2.5 leads
Kimi K2.5: 34.2 (#48), MiniMax-M2.1: 27.9 (#98)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 43.2% | 36.6% |
| OSWorld | 63.3% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 1,198 | — |
Reasoning Kimi K2.5 leads
Kimi K2.5: 31.2 (#80), MiniMax-M2.1: 16.6 (#302)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 69.9% | 11.2% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1453 | 1411 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 11.8% | — |
| SimpleBench | 46.8% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 78.5% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 65.3% | — |
| CritPt | 3.1% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 12% | — |
| EnigmaEval | 3.4% | — |
| Thematic Generalization | 69.4% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 148.03 | — |
Math Kimi K2.5 leads
Kimi K2.5: 51.8 (#53), MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#138)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1470 | 1397 |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 62.3% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 92.2% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 27.9% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 4.2% | — |
Knowledge Kimi K2.5 leads
Kimi K2.5: 53.6 (#56), MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#147)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 14.2% | 11.8% |
| LMArena Expert | 1466 | 1431 |
| GPQA Diamond | 87.6% | — |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 24.4% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 34.3% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Kimi K2.5: 41.1 (#39), MiniMax-M2.1: —
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1269 | — |
| LMArena Document | 1430 | — |
Multilingual Kimi K2.5 leads
Kimi K2.5: 53.9 (#53), MiniMax-M2.1: 50.0 (#128)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1433 | 1378 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1495 | 1430 |
| LMArena French | 1454 | 1404 |
| LMArena German | 1441 | 1381 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1421 | 1287 |
| LMArena Korean | 1410 | 1298 |
| LMArena Russian | 1435 | 1387 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1450 | 1397 |
Instruction Following Kimi K2.5 leads
Kimi K2.5: 75.3 (#64), MiniMax-M2.1: 73.8 (#112)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1431 | 1400 |
Long Context Kimi K2.5 leads
Kimi K2.5: 52.1 (#7), MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#101)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1445 | 1416 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 86.1% | — |
| CL-bench | 19.3% | — |
| CL-bench Life | 13.2% | — |
Writing & Preference Kimi K2.5 leads
Kimi K2.5: 65.1 (#53), MiniMax-M2.1: 58.3 (#120)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1445 | 1392 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1423 | 1361 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1444 | 1396 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1579 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Kimi K2.5 better than MiniMax-M2.1?
Kimi K2.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 48.1 to 38.9 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2.1 costs 1.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K2.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Kimi K2.5 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; Kimi K2.5 lists at $0.45 and $2.25.
Is Kimi K2.5 or MiniMax-M2.1 better for coding?
Kimi K2.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.8 versus 40.4 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Kimi K2.5 does, with 262K tokens against 205K.
How many benchmarks do Kimi K2.5 and MiniMax-M2.1 share?
22 benchmarks have published results for both models. Kimi K2.5 has 51 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2.1 has 22.