Model comparison

MiniMax-M2.5 vs MiniMax-M3

MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 38.1 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 23 shared benchmarks.

MiniMax-M2.5 MiniMax

38.1

Rank #181 Confirmed

MiniMax-M3 MiniMax

43.5

Rank #81 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 23 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M2.5 scores higher in 2 categories and MiniMax-M3 in 7 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in knowledge, where MiniMax-M3 leads 58.4 to 38.6.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 16.8% for MiniMax-M2.5 and 65.1% for MiniMax-M3.
  • Both cost about the same: $0.30 input and $1.20 output per million tokens.
  • MiniMax-M3 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 205K.

Side by side

MiniMax-M2.5 and MiniMax-M3 specifications
MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax-M3
ProviderMiniMaxMiniMax
Noometry Index38.143.5
Released2026-02-122026-06-01
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window205K1M
Max output131K512K
Input $ / M tokens$0.30$0.30
Output $ / M tokens$1.20$1.20
Results tracked3341

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Category by category

Coding MiniMax-M2.5 leads

MiniMax-M2.5: 47.9 (#53), MiniMax-M3: 41.5 (#111)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M2.5MiniMax-M3
LMArena WebDev13861482
LMArena Coding13801470
ALE-Bench618.17640.02
FrontierCode—14.7%
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)75.8%—
SWE-bench Multilingual68.3%—
SciCode—47.1%

Agentic & Tool Use MiniMax-M2.5 leads

MiniMax-M2.5: 30.2 (#70), MiniMax-M3: 22.5 (#121)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M2.5MiniMax-M3
Vending-Bench 2-23.162,158
Terminal-Bench42.7%—
APEX-Agents—37.7%
OSWorld 2.0—4.6%
GBAEval—0.9%

Reasoning MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M2.5: 17.6 (#281), MiniMax-M3: 29.3 (#83)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M2.5MiniMax-M3
NYT Connections (extended)16.8%65.1%
LMArena Hard Prompts13721447
Epoch Capabilities Index146.68147
ARC-AGI-24.9%—
SimpleBench—45.8%
Kagi LLM Benchmark55.2%—
ARC-AGI-163.7%—
CritPt—3.7%
Chess Puzzles—14%
Mystery Game Puzzles—8%
DTBench—78.9%
LMCA—33.7%
Surface Evolver Bench—55%
ForecastBench—61.4

Math MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M2.5: 25.8 (#242), MiniMax-M3: 39.1 (#83)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M2.5MiniMax-M3
ProofBench4%18%
LMArena Math13781432
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025—71.1%

Knowledge MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M2.5: 38.6 (#132), MiniMax-M3: 58.4 (#32)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M2.5MiniMax-M3
LMArena Expert13781462
GPQA Diamond—90.9%
Vectara Hallucination Rate9.1%—

Multimodal Not comparable

MiniMax-M2.5: —, MiniMax-M3: 39.5 (#45)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M2.5MiniMax-M3
LMArena Vision—1254
LMArena Document—1435

Multilingual MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M2.5: 47.3 (#147), MiniMax-M3: 53.2 (#70)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M2.5MiniMax-M3
LMArena Non-English13381420
LMArena Chinese13921465
LMArena French13631445
LMArena German13611424
LMArena Japanese11691381
LMArena Korean12321372
LMArena Russian13591430
LMArena Spanish13541431

Instruction Following MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M2.5: 71.7 (#143), MiniMax-M3: 75.7 (#56)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M2.5MiniMax-M3
LMArena Instruction Following13531433

Long Context MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M2.5: 37.4 (#211), MiniMax-M3: 44.2 (#68)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M2.5MiniMax-M3
LMArena Longer Query13671445
CL-bench11.4%—
CL-bench Life6.3%—

Writing & Preference MiniMax-M3 leads

MiniMax-M2.5: 54.1 (#149), MiniMax-M3: 62.3 (#79)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M2.5MiniMax-M3
LMArena Text13591433
LMArena Creative Writing13311405
LMArena Multi-Turn13641441
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1361—
EQ-Bench 4—1150

Frequently asked questions

Is MiniMax-M2.5 better than MiniMax-M3?

MiniMax-M3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 38.1 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M2.5 or MiniMax-M3?

MiniMax-M3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; MiniMax-M2.5 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.

Is MiniMax-M2.5 or MiniMax-M3 better for coding?

MiniMax-M2.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 47.9 versus 41.5 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax-M3 does, with 1M tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M2.5 and MiniMax-M3 share?

23 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M2.5 has 33 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M3 has 41.

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