Model comparison
MiniMax M1 vs Nova 2 Lite
MiniMax M1 and Nova 2 Lite score almost the same on the Noometry Index (40.3 vs 39.7), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
MiniMaxSummary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax M1 scores higher in 2 categories and Nova 2 Lite in 6 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Nova 2 Lite leads 43.0 to 36.4.
- Nova 2 Lite is cheaper at $0.30 / $2.50 per million input/output tokens, against $0.55 / $2.20 for MiniMax M1.
- MiniMax M1 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| MiniMax M1 | Nova 2 Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Amazon |
| Noometry Index | 40.3 | 39.7 |
| Released | 2025-06-13 | 2025-12-01 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1M | 1M |
| Max output | 40K | 64K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.55 | $0.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $2.20 | $2.50 |
| Results tracked | 18 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Too close to call
MiniMax M1: 39.9 (#153), Nova 2 Lite: 40.7 (#134)
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1359 | 1385 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
MiniMax M1: —, Nova 2 Lite: 24.1 (#121)
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 27.1% |
Reasoning Too close to call
MiniMax M1: 26.9 (#126), Nova 2 Lite: 27.5 (#118)
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1339 | 1364 |
Math Too close to call
MiniMax M1: 37.5 (#151), Nova 2 Lite: 37.5 (#156)
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1361 | 1359 |
Knowledge Nova 2 Lite leads
MiniMax M1: 36.4 (#170), Nova 2 Lite: 43.0 (#94)
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1317 | 1358 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 5.1% |
Multilingual Nova 2 Lite leads
MiniMax M1: 45.8 (#163), Nova 2 Lite: 47.1 (#153)
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1319 | 1337 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1360 | 1364 |
| LMArena French | 1370 | 1381 |
| LMArena German | 1350 | 1343 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1217 | 1271 |
| LMArena Korean | 1266 | 1284 |
| LMArena Russian | 1329 | 1343 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1353 | 1373 |
Instruction Following Nova 2 Lite leads
MiniMax M1: 69.3 (#174), Nova 2 Lite: 70.5 (#161)
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1312 | 1335 |
Long Context Too close to call
MiniMax M1: 41.4 (#141), Nova 2 Lite: 40.6 (#150)
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1326 | 1335 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 69.4% | — |
Writing & Preference Too close to call
MiniMax M1: 53.1 (#161), Nova 2 Lite: 53.9 (#154)
| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1343 | 1362 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1298 | 1291 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1335 | 1338 |
Frequently asked questions
Is MiniMax M1 better than Nova 2 Lite?
MiniMax M1 and Nova 2 Lite score almost the same on the Noometry Index (40.3 vs 39.7), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax M1 or Nova 2 Lite?
Nova 2 Lite is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; MiniMax M1 lists at $0.55 and $2.20.
Is MiniMax M1 or Nova 2 Lite better for coding?
They score almost the same on coding (39.9 vs 40.7); test both on your own repository before choosing.
Which has the bigger context window?
Both accept 1M tokens.
How many benchmarks do MiniMax M1 and Nova 2 Lite share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax M1 has 18 scored results on Noometry and Nova 2 Lite has 19.