Model comparison
MiniMax-M2 vs Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct
MiniMax-M2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.9 to 28.8 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 15 shared benchmarks.
MiniMax
MicrosoftSummary
- They share 15 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M2 scores higher in 8 categories and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where MiniMax-M2 leads 53.3 to 31.3.
Side by side
| MiniMax-M2 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Microsoft |
| Noometry Index | 36.9 | 28.8 |
| Released | 2025-10-27 | 2024-04-23 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 205K | — |
| Max output | 131K | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.30 | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.20 | — |
| Results tracked | 21 | 32 |
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Category by category
Coding MiniMax-M2 leads
MiniMax-M2: 39.1 (#151), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 27.4 (#313)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1370 | 1102 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | 61% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1297 | — |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 20.3% |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
MiniMax-M2: 24.9 (#102), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: —
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 30% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 160.6 | — |
Reasoning MiniMax-M2 leads
MiniMax-M2: 18.6 (#256), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 14.2 (#319)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1357 | 1100 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 57.8% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 14.8% | — |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 15.9% |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 30.3% |
| Adversarial NLI | — | 58.1% |
| BIG-Bench Hard | — | 79.1% |
| HellaSwag | — | 77% |
| LiveBench | — | 24% |
| WinoGrande | — | 81.5% |
Math MiniMax-M2 leads
MiniMax-M2: 34.6 (#158), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 25.4 (#247)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1350 | 1151 |
| LiveBench Math | — | 17.6% |
Knowledge MiniMax-M2 leads
MiniMax-M2: 36.3 (#160), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 28.5 (#237)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1336 | 1067 |
| ARC (AI2) Challenge | — | 90.7% |
| MMLU | — | 75.7% |
| OpenBookQA | — | 88% |
| TriviaQA | — | 58.1% |
Multilingual MiniMax-M2 leads
MiniMax-M2: 45.6 (#165), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 28.6 (#267)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1314 | 1058 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1367 | 1061 |
| LMArena French | 1336 | 1134 |
| LMArena German | 1366 | 1080 |
| LMArena Russian | 1332 | 1111 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1326 | 1111 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 966 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 894 |
Instruction Following MiniMax-M2 leads
MiniMax-M2: 70.4 (#160), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 52.2 (#287)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1329 | 1087 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 47.2% |
Long Context MiniMax-M2 leads
MiniMax-M2: 40.5 (#148), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 33.0 (#262)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1332 | 1088 |
Writing & Preference MiniMax-M2 leads
MiniMax-M2: 53.3 (#157), Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct: 31.3 (#279)
| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1340 | 1110 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1288 | 1083 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1362 | 1068 |
| LiveBench Language | — | 12.9% |
Frequently asked questions
Is MiniMax-M2 better than Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct?
MiniMax-M2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.9 to 28.8 on the Noometry Index.
Is MiniMax-M2 or Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct better for coding?
MiniMax-M2 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.1 versus 27.4 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M2 and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct share?
15 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M2 has 21 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Small 8k Instruct has 32.