Model comparison
MiniMax-M2.1 vs Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct
MiniMax-M2.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.9 to 29.3 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
MiniMax
MicrosoftSummary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher in 8 categories and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where MiniMax-M2.1 leads 58.3 to 31.1.
Side by side
| MiniMax-M2.1 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Microsoft |
| Noometry Index | 38.9 | 29.3 |
| Released | 2025-12-23 | 2024-04-23 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 205K | — |
| Max output | 131K | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.30 | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.20 | — |
| Results tracked | 22 | 32 |
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Category by category
Coding MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 40.4 (#143), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.9 (#318)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1421 | 1101 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1384 | — |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 20.3% |
| ALE-Bench | 623.83 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
MiniMax-M2.1: 27.9 (#98), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 36.6% | — |
Reasoning MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 16.6 (#302), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 14.8 (#323)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1411 | 1100 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 11.2% | — |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 15.9% |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 30.3% |
| Adversarial NLI | — | 58.1% |
| BIG-Bench Hard | — | 79.1% |
| HellaSwag | — | 77% |
| LiveBench | — | 24% |
| WinoGrande | — | 81.5% |
Math MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#138), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.6 (#248)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1397 | 1151 |
| LiveBench Math | — | 17.6% |
Knowledge MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#147), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 29.1 (#240)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1431 | 1067 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 11.8% | — |
| ARC (AI2) Challenge | — | 90.7% |
| MMLU | — | 75.7% |
| OpenBookQA | — | 88% |
| TriviaQA | — | 58.1% |
Multilingual MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 50.0 (#128), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 28.5 (#272)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1378 | 1058 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1430 | 1061 |
| LMArena French | 1404 | 1135 |
| LMArena German | 1381 | 1080 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1287 | 966 |
| LMArena Korean | 1298 | 894 |
| LMArena Russian | 1387 | 1111 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1397 | 1111 |
Instruction Following MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 73.8 (#112), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 51.9 (#292)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1400 | 1087 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 47.2% |
Long Context MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#101), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 33.0 (#267)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1416 | 1088 |
Writing & Preference MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 58.3 (#120), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 31.1 (#284)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1392 | 1110 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1361 | 1083 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1396 | 1068 |
| LiveBench Language | — | 12.9% |
Frequently asked questions
Is MiniMax-M2.1 better than Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct?
MiniMax-M2.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.9 to 29.3 on the Noometry Index.
Is MiniMax-M2.1 or Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct better for coding?
MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.4 versus 27.9 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M2.1 and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M2.1 has 22 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct has 32.