Model comparison
MiniMax-M2.1 vs Ministral 3B
MiniMax-M2.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.4 to 25.6 on the Noometry Index. Ministral 3B costs 13× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M2.1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 1 shared benchmarks.
MiniMax
Mistral AISummary
- They share 1 benchmark with published results for both. MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher in 2 categories and Ministral 3B in 1 category; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where MiniMax-M2.1 leads 37.7 to 10.4.
- Ministral 3B is cheaper at $0.04 / $0.04 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for MiniMax-M2.1.
- MiniMax-M2.1 accepts more context: 205K tokens versus 128K.
Side by side
| MiniMax-M2.1 | Ministral 3B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 38.4 | 25.6 |
| Released | 2025-12-23 | 2024-10-01 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 205K | 128K |
| Max output | 131K | 128K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.30 | $0.04 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.20 | $0.04 |
| Results tracked | 22 | 6 |
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Category by category
Coding Not comparable
MiniMax-M2.1: 40.1 (#132), Ministral 3B: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1384 | — |
| LMArena Coding | 1421 | — |
| ALE-Bench | 623.83 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
MiniMax-M2.1: 27.7 (#91), Ministral 3B: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 36.6% | — |
Reasoning Ministral 3B leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 15.8 (#301), Ministral 3B: 17.7 (#278)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 11.2% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1410 | — |
| DTBench | — | 51.7% |
| LMCA | — | 5.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 118.08 |
Math MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 35.6 (#142), Ministral 3B: 24.5 (#257)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1396 | — |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 14.4% |
Knowledge MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 37.7 (#143), Ministral 3B: 10.4 (#297)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 11.8% | 7.3% |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 25.3% |
| LMArena Expert | 1432 | — |
Multilingual Not comparable
MiniMax-M2.1: 50.2 (#123), Ministral 3B: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1378 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1430 | — |
| LMArena French | 1405 | — |
| LMArena German | 1380 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1287 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1297 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1386 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1396 | — |
Instruction Following Not comparable
MiniMax-M2.1: 74.0 (#108), Ministral 3B: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1399 | — |
Long Context Not comparable
MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#98), Ministral 3B: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1416 | — |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
MiniMax-M2.1: 58.5 (#114), Ministral 3B: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1392 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1362 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1396 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is MiniMax-M2.1 better than Ministral 3B?
MiniMax-M2.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.4 to 25.6 on the Noometry Index. Ministral 3B costs 13× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M2.1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M2.1 or Ministral 3B?
Ministral 3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.04 per million input tokens and $0.04 per million output tokens; MiniMax-M2.1 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.
Which has the bigger context window?
MiniMax-M2.1 does, with 205K tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M2.1 and Ministral 3B share?
1 benchmark has published results for both models. MiniMax-M2.1 has 22 scored results on Noometry and Ministral 3B has 6.