Model comparison

MiniMax-M2.1 vs Qwen3.5 27B

Qwen3.5 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.9 to 38.9 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2.1 costs 1.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.5 27B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 21 shared benchmarks.

MiniMax-M2.1

MiniMax

38.9

Rank #178 Confirmed

Qwen3.5 27B

Alibaba (Qwen)

41.9

Rank #127 Confirmed

Summary

They share 21 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher in 4 categories and Qwen3.5 27B in 4 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in reasoning, where Qwen3.5 27B leads 27.5 to 16.6.
The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 11.2% for MiniMax-M2.1 and 47.9% for Qwen3.5 27B.
MiniMax-M2.1 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $2.40 for Qwen3.5 27B.
Qwen3.5 27B accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 205K.

Side by side

MiniMax-M2.1 and Qwen3.5 27B specifications
	MiniMax-M2.1	Qwen3.5 27B
Provider	MiniMax	Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index	38.9	41.9
Released	2025-12-23	2026-02-23
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	205K	262K
Max output	131K	66K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.30	$0.30
Output $ / M tokens	$1.20	$2.40
Results tracked	22	28

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Category by category

Coding MiniMax-M2.1 leads

MiniMax-M2.1: 40.4 (#143), Qwen3.5 27B: 38.9 (#168)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M2.1	Qwen3.5 27B
LMArena WebDev	1384	1358
LMArena Coding	1421	1427
ALE-Bench	623.83	349.45
WeirdML	—	39.5%

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

MiniMax-M2.1: 27.9 (#98), Qwen3.5 27B: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M2.1	Qwen3.5 27B
Terminal-Bench	36.6%	—
Vending-Bench 2	—	201.98

Reasoning Qwen3.5 27B leads

MiniMax-M2.1: 16.6 (#302), Qwen3.5 27B: 27.5 (#117)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M2.1	Qwen3.5 27B
NYT Connections (extended)	11.2%	47.9%
LMArena Hard Prompts	1411	1414
Thematic Generalization	—	45.5%
DTBench	—	82.4%
LMCA	—	34%

Math Too close to call

MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#138), Qwen3.5 27B: 38.8 (#127)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M2.1	Qwen3.5 27B
LMArena Math	1397	1429
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions	—	56.7%

Knowledge Too close to call

MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#147), Qwen3.5 27B: 38.0 (#150)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M2.1	Qwen3.5 27B
Vectara Hallucination Rate	11.8%	12.1%
LMArena Expert	1431	1428

Multimodal Not comparable

MiniMax-M2.1: —, Qwen3.5 27B: 39.4 (#59)

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M2.1	Qwen3.5 27B
LMArena Vision	—	1241

Multilingual Too close to call

MiniMax-M2.1: 50.0 (#128), Qwen3.5 27B: 50.8 (#115)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M2.1	Qwen3.5 27B
LMArena Non-English	1378	1390
LMArena Chinese	1430	1478
LMArena French	1404	1410
LMArena German	1381	1393
LMArena Japanese	1287	1345
LMArena Korean	1298	1358
LMArena Russian	1387	1390
LMArena Spanish	1397	1407

Instruction Following Too close to call

MiniMax-M2.1: 73.8 (#112), Qwen3.5 27B: 73.5 (#119)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M2.1	Qwen3.5 27B
LMArena Instruction Following	1400	1393

Long Context Too close to call

MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#101), Qwen3.5 27B: 43.1 (#106)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M2.1	Qwen3.5 27B
LMArena Longer Query	1416	1413

Writing & Preference Qwen3.5 27B leads

MiniMax-M2.1: 58.3 (#120), Qwen3.5 27B: 59.3 (#111)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M2.1	Qwen3.5 27B
LMArena Text	1392	1409
LMArena Creative Writing	1361	1362
LMArena Multi-Turn	1396	1410

Frequently asked questions

Is MiniMax-M2.1 better than Qwen3.5 27B?

Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M2.1 or Qwen3.5 27B?

MiniMax-M2.1 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3.5 27B lists at $0.30 and $2.40.

Is MiniMax-M2.1 or Qwen3.5 27B better for coding?

MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.4 versus 38.9 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.5 27B does, with 262K tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M2.1 and Qwen3.5 27B share?

21 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M2.1 has 22 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5 27B has 28.