Model comparison

MiniMax-M2.5 vs Mistral Small 3.2

MiniMax-M2.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.3 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3.2 costs 4.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M2.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 11, 2026. 3 shared benchmarks.

MiniMax-M2.5

MiniMax

38.3

Rank #188 Confirmed

Mistral Small 3.2

Mistral AI

31.2

Rank #280 Confirmed

Summary

They share 3 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M2.5 scores higher in 3 categories and Mistral Small 3.2 in 1 category; 2 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in knowledge, where MiniMax-M2.5 leads 39.2 to 26.7.
The biggest single-benchmark swing is Kagi LLM Benchmark: 55.2% for MiniMax-M2.5 and 40.4% for Mistral Small 3.2.
Mistral Small 3.2 is cheaper at $0.0938 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for MiniMax-M2.5.
Mistral Small 3.2 accepts more context: 256K tokens versus 205K.

Side by side

MiniMax-M2.5 and Mistral Small 3.2 specifications
	MiniMax-M2.5	Mistral Small 3.2
Provider	MiniMax	Mistral AI
Noometry Index	38.3	31.2
Released	2026-02-12	2025-06-20
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	205K	256K
Max output	131K	16K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.30	$0.0938
Output $ / M tokens	$1.20	$0.25
Results tracked	33	6

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Category by category

Coding Not comparable

MiniMax-M2.5: 48.1 (#58), Mistral Small 3.2: —

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M2.5	Mistral Small 3.2
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)	75.8%	—
LMArena WebDev	1387	—
SWE-bench Multilingual	68.3%	—
LMArena Coding	1381	—
ALE-Bench	618.17	—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

MiniMax-M2.5: 30.4 (#77), Mistral Small 3.2: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M2.5	Mistral Small 3.2
Terminal-Bench	42.7%	—
Vending-Bench 2	-23.16	—

Reasoning Too close to call

MiniMax-M2.5: 17.5 (#292), Mistral Small 3.2: 18.1 (#287)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M2.5	Mistral Small 3.2
Kagi LLM Benchmark	55.2%	40.4%
Epoch Capabilities Index	146.68	131.74
ARC-AGI-2	4.9%	—
NYT Connections (extended)	16.8%	—
ARC-AGI-1	63.7%	—
Chess Puzzles	—	1%
LMArena Hard Prompts	1372	—

Math Too close to call

MiniMax-M2.5: 26.9 (#253), Mistral Small 3.2: 26.3 (#260)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M2.5	Mistral Small 3.2
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	—	30.3%
ProofBench	4%	—
LMArena Math	1378	—

Knowledge MiniMax-M2.5 leads

MiniMax-M2.5: 39.2 (#135), Mistral Small 3.2: 26.7 (#256)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M2.5	Mistral Small 3.2
GPQA Diamond	—	49.1%
Vectara Hallucination Rate	9.1%	—
LMArena Expert	1379	—

Multilingual Not comparable

MiniMax-M2.5: 47.1 (#152), Mistral Small 3.2: —

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M2.5	Mistral Small 3.2
LMArena Non-English	1338	—
LMArena Chinese	1393	—
LMArena French	1362	—
LMArena German	1362	—
LMArena Japanese	1171	—
LMArena Korean	1232	—
LMArena Russian	1358	—
LMArena Spanish	1354	—

Instruction Following Not comparable

MiniMax-M2.5: 71.5 (#148), Mistral Small 3.2: —

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M2.5	Mistral Small 3.2
LMArena Instruction Following	1353	—

Long Context Not comparable

MiniMax-M2.5: 37.5 (#216), Mistral Small 3.2: —

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M2.5	Mistral Small 3.2
CL-bench	11.4%	—
CL-bench Life	6.3%	—
LMArena Longer Query	1366	—

Writing & Preference MiniMax-M2.5 leads

MiniMax-M2.5: 53.9 (#153), Mistral Small 3.2: 45.0 (#224)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	MiniMax-M2.5	Mistral Small 3.2
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	1361	1255
LMArena Text	1359	—
LMArena Creative Writing	1331	—
LMArena Multi-Turn	1364	—

Frequently asked questions

Is MiniMax-M2.5 better than Mistral Small 3.2?

Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M2.5 or Mistral Small 3.2?

Mistral Small 3.2 is cheaper. It lists at $0.0938 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; MiniMax-M2.5 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.

Which has the bigger context window?

Mistral Small 3.2 does, with 256K tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M2.5 and Mistral Small 3.2 share?

3 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M2.5 has 33 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3.2 has 6.