Model comparison
MiniMax-M2.1 vs Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3.8 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.0 to 38.9 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 19 shared benchmarks.
Summary
- They share 19 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3.8 27B in 8 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Qwen3.8 27B leads 41.0 to 16.6.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 11.2% for MiniMax-M2.1 and 54.5% for Qwen3.8 27B.
- MiniMax-M2.1 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.04 / $2.30 for Qwen3.8 27B.
- Qwen3.8 27B accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 205K.
Side by side
| MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3.8 27B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 38.9 | 46.0 |
| Released | 2025-12-23 | 2026-08-14 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 205K | 262K |
| Max output | 131K | 33K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.30 | $0.04 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.20 | $2.30 |
| Results tracked | 22 | 31 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3.8 27B leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 40.4 (#143), Qwen3.8 27B: 50.5 (#44)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1384 | 1593 |
| LMArena Coding | 1421 | 1482 |
| SciCode | — | 46.6% |
| ALE-Bench | 623.83 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Qwen3.8 27B leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 27.9 (#98), Qwen3.8 27B: 32.9 (#57)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 36.6% | — |
| APEX-Agents | — | 47.5% |
Reasoning Qwen3.8 27B leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 16.6 (#302), Qwen3.8 27B: 41.0 (#54)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 11.2% | 54.5% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1411 | 1460 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | — | 42.4% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | — | 87.5% |
| CritPt | — | 5.4% |
| DTBench | — | 88% |
| LMCA | — | 41.4% |
| Surface Evolver Bench | — | 45% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 149.38 |
Math MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#138), Qwen3.8 27B: 37.1 (#161)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1397 | 1456 |
| ProofBench | — | 16% |
Knowledge Qwen3.8 27B leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#147), Qwen3.8 27B: 41.6 (#109)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1431 | 1482 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 11.8% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
MiniMax-M2.1: —, Qwen3.8 27B: 41.3 (#37)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1271 |
Multilingual Qwen3.8 27B leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 50.0 (#128), Qwen3.8 27B: 53.7 (#60)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1378 | 1430 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1430 | 1504 |
| LMArena French | 1404 | 1465 |
| LMArena German | 1381 | 1438 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1287 | 1384 |
| LMArena Korean | 1298 | 1393 |
| LMArena Russian | 1387 | 1415 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1397 | 1448 |
Instruction Following Qwen3.8 27B leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 73.8 (#112), Qwen3.8 27B: 75.8 (#53)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1400 | 1439 |
Long Context Qwen3.8 27B leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#101), Qwen3.8 27B: 44.3 (#70)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1416 | 1450 |
Writing & Preference Qwen3.8 27B leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 58.3 (#120), Qwen3.8 27B: 65.8 (#43)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1392 | 1441 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1361 | 1384 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1396 | 1441 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1671 |
Frequently asked questions
Is MiniMax-M2.1 better than Qwen3.8 27B?
Qwen3.8 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.0 to 38.9 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M2.1 or Qwen3.8 27B?
MiniMax-M2.1 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 27B lists at $0.04 and $2.30.
Is MiniMax-M2.1 or Qwen3.8 27B better for coding?
Qwen3.8 27B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.5 versus 40.4 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.8 27B does, with 262K tokens against 205K.
How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M2.1 and Qwen3.8 27B share?
19 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M2.1 has 22 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.8 27B has 31.