Model comparison
MiniMax-M2.1 vs Mistral Small 3
MiniMax-M2.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.4 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 9.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M2.1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 16 shared benchmarks.
MiniMax
Mistral AISummary
- They share 16 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher in 7 categories and Mistral Small 3 in 1 category; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where MiniMax-M2.1 leads 58.5 to 32.4.
- Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for MiniMax-M2.1.
- MiniMax-M2.1 accepts more context: 205K tokens versus 33K.
Side by side
| MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 38.4 | 30.9 |
| Released | 2025-12-23 | 2025-01-30 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 205K | 33K |
| Max output | 131K | 16K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.30 | $0.05 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.20 | $0.08 |
| Results tracked | 22 | 24 |
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Category by category
Coding MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 40.1 (#132), Mistral Small 3: 36.0 (#203)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1421 | 1246 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1384 | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 45.3% |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 50.4% |
| ALE-Bench | 623.83 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
MiniMax-M2.1: 27.7 (#91), Mistral Small 3: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 36.6% | — |
Reasoning Mistral Small 3 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 15.8 (#301), Mistral Small 3: 18.2 (#269)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1410 | 1233 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 11.2% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 0% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 127.06 |
Math MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 35.6 (#142), Mistral Small 3: 15.3 (#290)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1396 | 1240 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 6.7% |
Knowledge MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 37.7 (#143), Mistral Small 3: 25.0 (#258)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1432 | 1202 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 47.3% |
| Confabulations | — | 25.2% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 11.8% | — |
Multilingual MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 50.2 (#123), Mistral Small 3: 37.5 (#231)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1378 | 1198 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1430 | 1204 |
| LMArena French | 1405 | 1202 |
| LMArena German | 1380 | 1211 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1287 | 1111 |
| LMArena Korean | 1297 | 1188 |
| LMArena Russian | 1386 | 1216 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1396 | — |
Instruction Following MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 74.0 (#108), Mistral Small 3: 63.9 (#224)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1399 | 1214 |
Long Context MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#98), Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#206)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1416 | 1246 |
Writing & Preference MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 58.5 (#114), Mistral Small 3: 32.4 (#275)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1392 | 1234 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1362 | 1195 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1396 | 1217 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 707 |
Frequently asked questions
Is MiniMax-M2.1 better than Mistral Small 3?
MiniMax-M2.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.4 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 9.1× 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 Mistral Small 3?
Mistral Small 3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; MiniMax-M2.1 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.
Is MiniMax-M2.1 or Mistral Small 3 better for coding?
MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.1 versus 36.0 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
MiniMax-M2.1 does, with 205K tokens against 33K.
How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M2.1 and Mistral Small 3 share?
16 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M2.1 has 22 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3 has 24.