# Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite vs MiniMax-M2

> Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.8 to 37.4 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-3-1-flash-lite-vs-minimax-m2
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 18

## Summary

- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite scores higher in 8 categories and MiniMax-M2 in 1 category; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads 60.9 to 53.0.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Kagi LLM Benchmark: 67.2% for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and 57.8% for MiniMax-M2.
- MiniMax-M2 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.25 / $1.50 for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite.
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 205K.
- MiniMax-M2 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | MiniMax |
| Noometry Index | 40.8 | 37.4 |
| Rank | 144 | 204 |
| Context | 1.05M | 205K |
| Input $/M | $0.25 | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | $1.50 | $1.20 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 37.8 (#188)
- MiniMax-M2: 39.3 (#159)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1256 | 1297 |
| LMArena Coding | 1400 | 1370 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 61% |
| SciCode | 41.9% | — |
| WeirdML | 52.2% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 797.73 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 30.2 (#79)
- MiniMax-M2: 25.1 (#109)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 30% |
| DeepResearch Bench | 37.3% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 160.6 |

## Reasoning

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 22.9 (#186)
- MiniMax-M2: 19.4 (#258)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 67.2% | 57.8% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 8.2% | 14.8% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1407 | 1357 |
| CritPt | 1.1% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 25% | — |
| EnigmaEval | 3% | — |
| Thematic Generalization | 63.3% | — |
| DTBench | 76.8% | — |
| LMCA | 35% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 144.47 | — |
| ForecastBench | 54.4 | — |

## Math

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 40.7 (#90)
- MiniMax-M2: 37.3 (#160)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1428 | 1352 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 27.7% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 80% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 41.9 (#104)
- MiniMax-M2: 37.0 (#163)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1398 | 1337 |
| GPQA Diamond | 81.8% | — |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 8.6% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 8.2% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 39.4 (#60)
- MiniMax-M2: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1240 | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 52.3 (#86)
- MiniMax-M2: 45.3 (#171)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1411 | 1313 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1461 | 1366 |
| LMArena French | 1424 | 1335 |
| LMArena German | 1429 | 1355 |
| LMArena Russian | 1420 | 1331 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1421 | 1326 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1413 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1392 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 72.7 (#131)
- MiniMax-M2: 70.2 (#166)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1377 | 1328 |

## Long Context

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 42.5 (#122)
- MiniMax-M2: 40.5 (#153)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1394 | 1331 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 60.9 (#94)
- MiniMax-M2: 53.0 (#162)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1416 | 1340 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1401 | 1286 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1417 | 1361 |

## FAQ

### Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite better than MiniMax-M2?

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.8 to 37.4 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or MiniMax-M2?

MiniMax-M2 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite lists at $0.25 and $1.50.

### Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or MiniMax-M2 better for coding?

MiniMax-M2 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.3 versus 37.8 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite does, with 1.05M tokens against 205K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and MiniMax-M2 share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite has 38 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2 has 21.