# Gemini 3.5 Flash vs MiniMax-M2.1

> Gemini 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 38.4 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2.1 costs 6.4× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.5 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-3-5-flash-vs-minimax-m2-1
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 20

## Summary

- They share 20 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.5 Flash scores higher in 8 categories and MiniMax-M2.1 in 1 category; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.5 Flash leads 62.7 to 15.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 92.6% for Gemini 3.5 Flash and 11.2% for MiniMax-M2.1.
- MiniMax-M2.1 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1.50 / $9 for Gemini 3.5 Flash.
- Gemini 3.5 Flash accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 205K.
- MiniMax-M2.1 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemini 3.5 Flash | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | MiniMax |
| Noometry Index | 54.1 | 38.4 |
| Rank | 29 | 177 |
| Context | 1.05M | 205K |
| Input $/M | $1.50 | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | $9 | $1.20 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: 49.1 (#46)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 40.1 (#132)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1499 | 1384 |
| LMArena Coding | 1492 | 1421 |
| ALE-Bench | 911.02 | 623.83 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 79.3% | — |
| DeepSWE | 37.4% | — |
| SciCode | 53.1% | — |
| WeirdML | 62.6% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: 24.8 (#107)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 27.7 (#91)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 36.6% |
| APEX-Agents | 27.5% | — |
| GBAEval | 6.7% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 14% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 5,396 | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: 62.7 (#16)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 15.8 (#301)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 92.6% | 11.2% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1488 | 1410 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 72.1% | — |
| SimpleBench | 76.7% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 92.5% | — |
| CritPt | 13.1% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 50% | — |
| EnigmaEval | 25.4% | — |
| EBR-Bench | 4.8% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 32% | — |
| DTBench | 94.7% | — |
| LMCA | 47.1% | — |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 58.1% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 154.55 | — |
| ForecastBench | 59 | — |

## Math

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: 60.5 (#30)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 35.6 (#142)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1502 | 1396 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 62.8% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 26.8% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 76.3% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 95.6% | — |
| ProofBench | 31% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 39% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 14.6% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: 66.3 (#10)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 37.7 (#143)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1493 | 1432 |
| GPQA Diamond | 92.8% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 66.2% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 11.8% |

## Multimodal

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: 45.7 (#13)
- MiniMax-M2.1: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1311 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 33.6% | — |
| LMArena Document | 1463 | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: 57.1 (#12)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 50.2 (#123)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1475 | 1378 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1525 | 1430 |
| LMArena French | 1490 | 1405 |
| LMArena German | 1500 | 1380 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1481 | 1287 |
| LMArena Korean | 1453 | 1297 |
| LMArena Russian | 1491 | 1386 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1478 | 1396 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: 77.2 (#29)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 74.0 (#108)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1466 | 1399 |

## Long Context

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: 45.3 (#39)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#98)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1481 | 1416 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: 65.5 (#46)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 58.5 (#114)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1481 | 1392 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1467 | 1362 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1482 | 1396 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1087 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemini 3.5 Flash better than MiniMax-M2.1?

Gemini 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 38.4 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2.1 costs 6.4× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.5 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash or MiniMax-M2.1?

MiniMax-M2.1 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.5 Flash lists at $1.50 and $9.

### Is Gemini 3.5 Flash or MiniMax-M2.1 better for coding?

Gemini 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 49.1 versus 40.1 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.5 Flash does, with 1.05M tokens against 205K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.5 Flash and MiniMax-M2.1 share?

20 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.5 Flash has 54 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2.1 has 22.