# Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs MiniMax-M2

> Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 60.5 to 36.9 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2 costs 7.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5-vs-minimax-m2
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 1

## Summary

- They share 1 benchmark with published results for both. Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher in 5 categories and MiniMax-M2 in 0 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads 88.7 to 34.6.
- MiniMax-M2 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $10 for Claude Sonnet 5.5.
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 205K.
- MiniMax-M2 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | MiniMax |
| Noometry Index | 60.5 | 36.9 |
| Rank | 10 | 201 |
| Context | 1M | 205K |
| Input $/M | $2 | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | $10 | $1.20 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 65.5 (#6)
- MiniMax-M2: 39.1 (#151)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1699 | 1297 |
| FrontierCode | 52.1% | — |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 61% |
| CursorBench | 55.5% | — |
| FrontierSWE | 61.9% | — |
| SciCode | 61% | — |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1370 |
| ALE-Bench | 1,819 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 44.9 (#14)
- MiniMax-M2: 24.9 (#102)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 30% |
| APEX-Agents | 75.5% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 160.6 |

## Reasoning

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 52.4 (#29)
- MiniMax-M2: 18.6 (#256)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 57.8% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 14.8% |
| CritPt | 31.4% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1357 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 65% | — |

## Math

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 88.7 (#4)
- MiniMax-M2: 34.6 (#158)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 88.8% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 80.5% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 100% | — |
| ProofBench | 100% | — |
| LMArena Math | — | 1350 |

## Knowledge

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#11)
- MiniMax-M2: 36.3 (#160)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 95.6% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 46.5% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1336 |

## Multimodal

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 53.2 (#5)
- MiniMax-M2: —

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| Furniture Assembly | 75% | — |

## Multilingual

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: —
- MiniMax-M2: 45.6 (#165)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1314 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1367 |
| LMArena French | — | 1336 |
| LMArena German | — | 1366 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1332 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1326 |

## Instruction Following

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: —
- MiniMax-M2: 70.4 (#160)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1329 |

## Long Context

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: —
- MiniMax-M2: 40.5 (#148)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1332 |

## Writing & Preference

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: —
- MiniMax-M2: 53.3 (#157)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1340 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1288 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1362 |

## FAQ

### Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 better than MiniMax-M2?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 60.5 to 36.9 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2 costs 7.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or MiniMax-M2?

MiniMax-M2 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Claude Sonnet 5.5 lists at $2 and $10.

### Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 or MiniMax-M2 better for coding?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 65.5 versus 39.1 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 does, with 1M tokens against 205K.

### How many benchmarks do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and MiniMax-M2 share?

1 benchmark has published results for both models. Claude Sonnet 5.5 has 16 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2 has 21.