Model comparison
MiniMax-M2.1 vs Step 2 16k Exp 202412
MiniMax-M2.1 and Step 2 16k Exp 202412 score almost the same on the Noometry Index (38.9 vs 39.2), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.
MiniMax
StepFunSummary
- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher in 7 categories and Step 2 16k Exp 202412 in 1 category; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Step 2 16k Exp 202412 leads 25.9 to 16.6.
- MiniMax-M2.1 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 38.9 | 39.2 |
| Released | 2025-12-23 | — |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 205K | — |
| Max output | 131K | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.30 | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.20 | — |
| Results tracked | 22 | 12 |
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Category by category
Coding MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 40.4 (#143), Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 38.5 (#174)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1421 | 1316 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1384 | — |
| ALE-Bench | 623.83 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
MiniMax-M2.1: 27.9 (#98), Step 2 16k Exp 202412: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 36.6% | — |
Reasoning Step 2 16k Exp 202412 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 16.6 (#302), Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 25.9 (#142)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1411 | 1299 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 11.2% | — |
Math MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#138), Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 36.3 (#169)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1397 | 1304 |
Knowledge MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#147), Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 35.2 (#187)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1431 | 1279 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 11.8% | — |
Multilingual MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 50.0 (#128), Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 43.7 (#181)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1378 | 1290 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1430 | 1331 |
| LMArena Russian | 1387 | 1324 |
| LMArena French | 1404 | — |
| LMArena German | 1381 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1287 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1298 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1397 | — |
Instruction Following MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 73.8 (#112), Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 67.9 (#192)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1400 | 1287 |
Long Context MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#101), Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 39.7 (#170)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1416 | 1307 |
Writing & Preference MiniMax-M2.1 leads
MiniMax-M2.1: 58.3 (#120), Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 52.3 (#173)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1392 | 1321 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1361 | 1328 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1396 | 1292 |
Frequently asked questions
Is MiniMax-M2.1 better than Step 2 16k Exp 202412?
MiniMax-M2.1 and Step 2 16k Exp 202412 score almost the same on the Noometry Index (38.9 vs 39.2), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Is MiniMax-M2.1 or Step 2 16k Exp 202412 better for coding?
MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.4 versus 38.5 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M2.1 and Step 2 16k Exp 202412 share?
12 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M2.1 has 22 scored results on Noometry and Step 2 16k Exp 202412 has 12.