Model comparison

MiniMax M1 vs MiniMax-M2.1

MiniMax M1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 38.4 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2.1 costs 1.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax M1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 17 shared benchmarks.

MiniMax M1

MiniMax

39.7

Rank #146 Confirmed

MiniMax-M2.1

MiniMax

38.4

Rank #177 Confirmed

Summary

They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax M1 scores higher in 1 category and MiniMax-M2.1 in 7 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in reasoning, where MiniMax M1 leads 25.8 to 15.8.
MiniMax-M2.1 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.40 / $2.20 for MiniMax M1.
MiniMax M1 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 205K.

Side by side

MiniMax M1 and MiniMax-M2.1 specifications
	MiniMax M1	MiniMax-M2.1
Provider	MiniMax	MiniMax
Noometry Index	39.7	38.4
Released	2025-06-13	2025-12-23
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	1M	205K
Max output	40K	131K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.40	$0.30
Output $ / M tokens	$2.20	$1.20
Results tracked	18	22

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Category by category

Coding Too close to call

MiniMax M1: 39.2 (#149), MiniMax-M2.1: 40.1 (#132)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax M1	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Coding	1359	1421
LMArena WebDev	—	1384
ALE-Bench	—	623.83

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

MiniMax M1: —, MiniMax-M2.1: 27.7 (#91)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax M1	MiniMax-M2.1
Terminal-Bench	—	36.6%

Reasoning MiniMax M1 leads

MiniMax M1: 25.8 (#125), MiniMax-M2.1: 15.8 (#301)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax M1	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Hard Prompts	1340	1410
NYT Connections (extended)	—	11.2%

Math Too close to call

MiniMax M1: 34.8 (#152), MiniMax-M2.1: 35.6 (#142)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax M1	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Math	1360	1396

Knowledge MiniMax-M2.1 leads

MiniMax M1: 35.7 (#168), MiniMax-M2.1: 37.7 (#143)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax M1	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Expert	1316	1432
Vectara Hallucination Rate	—	11.8%

Multilingual MiniMax-M2.1 leads

MiniMax M1: 46.0 (#157), MiniMax-M2.1: 50.2 (#123)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax M1	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Non-English	1320	1378
LMArena Chinese	1361	1430
LMArena French	1369	1405
LMArena German	1350	1380
LMArena Japanese	1220	1287
LMArena Korean	1263	1297
LMArena Russian	1330	1386
LMArena Spanish	1354	1396

Instruction Following MiniMax-M2.1 leads

MiniMax M1: 69.5 (#169), MiniMax-M2.1: 74.0 (#108)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax M1	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Instruction Following	1312	1399

Long Context MiniMax-M2.1 leads

MiniMax M1: 41.4 (#136), MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#98)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax M1	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Longer Query	1326	1416
Fiction.LiveBench	69.4%	—

Writing & Preference MiniMax-M2.1 leads

MiniMax M1: 53.3 (#155), MiniMax-M2.1: 58.5 (#114)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax M1	MiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Text	1343	1392
LMArena Creative Writing	1298	1362
LMArena Multi-Turn	1335	1396

Frequently asked questions

Is MiniMax M1 better than MiniMax-M2.1?

Which is cheaper, MiniMax M1 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; MiniMax M1 lists at $0.40 and $2.20.

Is MiniMax M1 or MiniMax-M2.1 better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (39.2 vs 40.1); test both on your own repository before choosing.

Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax M1 does, with 1M tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks do MiniMax M1 and MiniMax-M2.1 share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax M1 has 18 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2.1 has 22.