Model comparison

MiniMax-M2.5 vs Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct

MiniMax-M2.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.3 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.

MiniMax-M2.5 MiniMax

38.3

Rank #188 Confirmed

Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct Microsoft

27.9

Rank #328 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M2.5 scores higher in 8 categories and Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct in 0 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in writing & preference, where MiniMax-M2.5 leads 53.9 to 27.6.

Side by side

MiniMax-M2.5 and Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct specifications
MiniMax-M2.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
ProviderMiniMaxMicrosoft
Noometry Index38.327.9
Released2026-02-122024-04-23
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window205K—
Max output131K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.30—
Output $ / M tokens$1.20—
Results tracked3335

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Category by category

Coding MiniMax-M2.5 leads

MiniMax-M2.5: 48.1 (#58), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 26.6 (#323)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M2.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Coding13811093
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)75.8%—
LMArena WebDev1387—
SWE-bench Multilingual68.3%—
LiveBench Coding—15.5%
ALE-Bench618.17—
HumanEval+—59.1%
MBPP+—54.2%

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

MiniMax-M2.5: 30.4 (#77), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M2.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
Terminal-Bench42.7%—
Vending-Bench 2-23.16—

Reasoning MiniMax-M2.5 leads

MiniMax-M2.5: 17.5 (#292), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 14.1 (#328)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M2.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Hard Prompts13721072
ARC-AGI-24.9%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark55.2%—
NYT Connections (extended)16.8%—
ARC-AGI-163.7%—
Chess Puzzles—0%
LiveBench Reasoning—26.8%
LiveBench Data Analysis—34.7%
Adversarial NLI—52.8%
BIG-Bench Hard—71.7%
Epoch Capabilities Index146.68—
HellaSwag—76.7%
LiveBench—22.4%
WinoGrande—70.8%

Math Too close to call

MiniMax-M2.5: 26.9 (#253), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 26.6 (#257)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M2.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Math13781111
ProofBench4%—
LiveBench Math—15.7%

Knowledge MiniMax-M2.5 leads

MiniMax-M2.5: 39.2 (#135), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 28.5 (#246)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M2.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Expert13791045
Vectara Hallucination Rate9.1%—
ARC (AI2) Challenge—84.9%
MMLU—68.8%
OpenBookQA—88%
TriviaQA—64%

Multilingual MiniMax-M2.5 leads

MiniMax-M2.5: 47.1 (#152), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 26.3 (#280)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M2.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Non-English13381021
LMArena Chinese13931021
LMArena French13621076
LMArena German13621044
LMArena Japanese1171935
LMArena Korean1232905
LMArena Russian13581022
LMArena Spanish13541085

Instruction Following MiniMax-M2.5 leads

MiniMax-M2.5: 71.5 (#148), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 47.7 (#303)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M2.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Instruction Following13531053
LiveBench Instruction Following—39.1%

Long Context MiniMax-M2.5 leads

MiniMax-M2.5: 37.5 (#216), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 31.7 (#276)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M2.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Longer Query13661044
CL-bench11.4%—
CL-bench Life6.3%—

Writing & Preference MiniMax-M2.5 leads

MiniMax-M2.5: 53.9 (#153), Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 27.6 (#300)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkMiniMax-M2.5Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct
LMArena Text13591073
LMArena Creative Writing13311037
LMArena Multi-Turn13641018
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1361—
LiveBench Language—9.2%

Frequently asked questions

Is MiniMax-M2.5 better than Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct?

MiniMax-M2.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.3 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index.

Is MiniMax-M2.5 or Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct better for coding?

MiniMax-M2.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.1 versus 26.6 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M2.5 and Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M2.5 has 33 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct has 35.

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