Model comparison

Kimi K2.6 vs MiniMax M1

Kimi K2.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.7 to 40.3 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax M1 costs 1.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K2.6's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.

Kimi K2.6 Moonshot AI

47.7

Rank #60 Confirmed

MiniMax M1 MiniMax

40.3

Rank #150 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Kimi K2.6 scores higher in 8 categories and MiniMax M1 in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where Kimi K2.6 leads 57.0 to 37.5.
  • MiniMax M1 is cheaper at $0.55 / $2.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.95 / $4 for Kimi K2.6.
  • MiniMax M1 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.

Side by side

Kimi K2.6 and MiniMax M1 specifications
Kimi K2.6MiniMax M1
ProviderMoonshot AIMiniMax
Noometry Index47.740.3
Released2026-04-202025-06-13
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window262K1M
Max output262K40K
Input $ / M tokens$0.95$0.55
Output $ / M tokens$4$2.20
Results tracked5118

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Category by category

Coding Kimi K2.6 leads

Kimi K2.6: 50.7 (#43), MiniMax M1: 39.9 (#153)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K2.6MiniMax M1
LMArena Coding14881359
SWE-bench Verified76.7%—
LMArena WebDev1509—
SciCode53.5%—
WeirdML55.9%—
ALE-Bench1,093—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Kimi K2.6: 21.9 (#137), MiniMax M1: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K2.6MiniMax M1
OSWorld 2.04.6%—
ExploitBench18.4%—
GBAEval0.9%—
GDP.pdf12%—
Vending-Bench 26,205—

Reasoning Kimi K2.6 leads

Kimi K2.6: 40.5 (#55), MiniMax M1: 26.9 (#126)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K2.6MiniMax M1
LMArena Hard Prompts14701339
NYT Connections (extended)87.2%—
CritPt8%—
Chess Puzzles26%—
EBR-Bench2.4%—
Mystery Game Puzzles18%—
DTBench90.9%—
LMCA37.3%—
Epoch Capabilities Index151.05—

Math Kimi K2.6 leads

Kimi K2.6: 57.0 (#41), MiniMax M1: 37.5 (#151)

Knowledge Kimi K2.6 leads

Kimi K2.6: 54.0 (#54), MiniMax M1: 36.4 (#170)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K2.6MiniMax M1
LMArena Expert14911317
GPQA Diamond90.8%—
SimpleQA Verified34.9%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate10.8%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Kimi K2.6: 31.6 (#103), MiniMax M1: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K2.6MiniMax M1
LMArena Vision1283—
Blueprint-Bench 23.9%—
Furniture Assembly21.7%—
LMArena Document1451—

Multilingual Kimi K2.6 leads

Kimi K2.6: 54.9 (#37), MiniMax M1: 45.8 (#163)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K2.6MiniMax M1
LMArena Non-English14461319
LMArena Chinese15211360
LMArena French14711370
LMArena German14501350
LMArena Japanese14431217
LMArena Korean14271266
LMArena Russian14461329
LMArena Spanish14641353

Instruction Following Kimi K2.6 leads

Kimi K2.6: 76.3 (#43), MiniMax M1: 69.3 (#174)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K2.6MiniMax M1
LMArena Instruction Following14511312

Long Context Kimi K2.6 leads

Kimi K2.6: 44.9 (#52), MiniMax M1: 41.4 (#141)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K2.6MiniMax M1
LMArena Longer Query14681326
Fiction.LiveBench—69.4%

Writing & Preference Kimi K2.6 leads

Kimi K2.6: 68.5 (#26), MiniMax M1: 53.1 (#161)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K2.6MiniMax M1
LMArena Text14551343
LMArena Creative Writing14341298
LMArena Multi-Turn14531335
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1725—
EQ-Bench 41202—

Frequently asked questions

Is Kimi K2.6 better than MiniMax M1?

Kimi K2.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.7 to 40.3 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax M1 costs 1.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K2.6's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Kimi K2.6 or MiniMax M1?

MiniMax M1 is cheaper. It lists at $0.55 per million input tokens and $2.20 per million output tokens; Kimi K2.6 lists at $0.95 and $4.

Is Kimi K2.6 or MiniMax M1 better for coding?

Kimi K2.6 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.7 versus 39.9 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax M1 does, with 1M tokens against 262K.

How many benchmarks do Kimi K2.6 and MiniMax M1 share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Kimi K2.6 has 51 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax M1 has 18.

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