Model comparison

Magistral Small vs MiniMax-M2

MiniMax-M2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.4 to 30.2 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified October 11, 2026. 1 shared benchmarks.

Magistral Small

Mistral AI

30.2

Rank #296 Confirmed

MiniMax-M2

MiniMax

37.4

Rank #204 Confirmed

Summary

They share 1 benchmark with published results for both. Magistral Small scores higher in 0 categories and MiniMax-M2 in 4 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in reasoning, where MiniMax-M2 leads 19.4 to 6.8.
The biggest single-benchmark swing is Kagi LLM Benchmark: 6.3% for Magistral Small and 57.8% for MiniMax-M2.
MiniMax-M2 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $1.50 for Magistral Small.
MiniMax-M2 accepts more context: 205K tokens versus 128K.

Side by side

Magistral Small and MiniMax-M2 specifications
	Magistral Small	MiniMax-M2
Provider	Mistral AI	MiniMax
Noometry Index	30.2	37.4
Released	2025-06-10	2025-10-27
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	128K	205K
Max output	40K	131K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.50	$0.30
Output $ / M tokens	$1.50	$1.20
Results tracked	10	21

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Category by category

Coding Too close to call

Magistral Small: 38.4 (#176), MiniMax-M2: 39.3 (#159)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Magistral Small	MiniMax-M2
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)	—	61%
LMArena WebDev	—	1297
SciCode	35.2%	—
LMArena Coding	—	1370

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Magistral Small: —, MiniMax-M2: 25.1 (#109)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	Magistral Small	MiniMax-M2
Terminal-Bench	—	30%
Vending-Bench 2	—	160.6

Reasoning MiniMax-M2 leads

Magistral Small: 6.8 (#350), MiniMax-M2: 19.4 (#258)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Magistral Small	MiniMax-M2
Kagi LLM Benchmark	6.3%	57.8%
ARC-AGI-2	0%	—
NYT Connections (extended)	—	14.8%
ARC-AGI-1	5%	—
CritPt	0.3%	—
Chess Puzzles	3%	—
LMArena Hard Prompts	—	1357
DTBench	61.3%	—
Epoch Capabilities Index	133.19	—

Math MiniMax-M2 leads

Magistral Small: 26.2 (#261), MiniMax-M2: 37.3 (#160)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Magistral Small	MiniMax-M2
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	30%	—
LMArena Math	—	1352

Knowledge MiniMax-M2 leads

Magistral Small: 30.9 (#223), MiniMax-M2: 37.0 (#163)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Magistral Small	MiniMax-M2
GPQA Diamond	56.1%	—
LMArena Expert	—	1337

Multilingual Not comparable

Magistral Small: —, MiniMax-M2: 45.3 (#171)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Magistral Small	MiniMax-M2
LMArena Non-English	—	1313
LMArena Chinese	—	1366
LMArena French	—	1335
LMArena German	—	1355
LMArena Russian	—	1331
LMArena Spanish	—	1326

Instruction Following Not comparable

Magistral Small: —, MiniMax-M2: 70.2 (#166)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Magistral Small	MiniMax-M2
LMArena Instruction Following	—	1328

Long Context Not comparable

Magistral Small: —, MiniMax-M2: 40.5 (#153)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Magistral Small	MiniMax-M2
LMArena Longer Query	—	1331

Writing & Preference Not comparable

Magistral Small: —, MiniMax-M2: 53.0 (#162)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Magistral Small	MiniMax-M2
LMArena Text	—	1340
LMArena Creative Writing	—	1286
LMArena Multi-Turn	—	1361

Frequently asked questions

Is Magistral Small better than MiniMax-M2?

MiniMax-M2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.4 to 30.2 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, Magistral Small or MiniMax-M2?

MiniMax-M2 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Magistral Small lists at $0.50 and $1.50.

Is Magistral Small or MiniMax-M2 better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (38.4 vs 39.3); test both on your own repository before choosing.

Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax-M2 does, with 205K tokens against 128K.

How many benchmarks do Magistral Small and MiniMax-M2 share?

1 benchmark has published results for both models. Magistral Small has 10 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2 has 21.