# Gemini 3.8 Flash vs MiniMax-M2

> Gemini 3.8 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.8 to 37.4 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2 costs 2.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.8 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-3-8-flash-vs-minimax-m2
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 18

## Summary

- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.8 Flash scores higher in 9 categories and MiniMax-M2 in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.8 Flash leads 76.9 to 19.4.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 97.4% for Gemini 3.8 Flash and 14.8% for MiniMax-M2.
- MiniMax-M2 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.75 / $3.75 for Gemini 3.8 Flash.
- Gemini 3.8 Flash accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 205K.
- MiniMax-M2 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | MiniMax |
| Noometry Index | 61.8 | 37.4 |
| Rank | 11 | 204 |
| Context | 1.05M | 205K |
| Input $/M | $0.75 | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | $3.75 | $1.20 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 59.2 (#15)
- MiniMax-M2: 39.3 (#159)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1584 | 1297 |
| LMArena Coding | 1510 | 1370 |
| DeepSWE | 73.8% | — |
| FrontierCode | 41.2% | — |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 61% |
| CursorBench | 39.6% | — |
| FrontierSWE | 19.6% | — |
| SciCode | 56.6% | — |
| WeirdML | 84.8% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 1,270 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 41.8 (#21)
- MiniMax-M2: 25.1 (#109)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | 5,094 | 160.6 |
| Terminal-Bench | — | 30% |
| APEX-Agents | 64.3% | — |
| Remote Labor Index | 5.8% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 23.4% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 76.9 (#5)
- MiniMax-M2: 19.4 (#258)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 97.4% | 14.8% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1508 | 1357 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 89.2% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 57.8% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 98.5% | — |
| CritPt | 18.3% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 61% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 47% | — |
| DTBench | 95.7% | — |
| LMCA | 52.9% | — |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 76.9% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 156.71 | — |

## Math

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 65.3 (#28)
- MiniMax-M2: 37.3 (#160)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1528 | 1352 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 68.4% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 22% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 98.9% | — |
| ProofBench | 48% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 74.8 (#2)
- MiniMax-M2: 37.0 (#163)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1524 | 1337 |
| GPQA Diamond | 95.4% | — |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 44.5% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 69.7% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 40.7 (#45)
- MiniMax-M2: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1314 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 38.6% | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 31.7% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 58.0 (#5)
- MiniMax-M2: 45.3 (#171)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1491 | 1313 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1554 | 1366 |
| LMArena French | 1498 | 1335 |
| LMArena German | 1493 | 1355 |
| LMArena Russian | 1515 | 1331 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1485 | 1326 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1502 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1459 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 78.0 (#13)
- MiniMax-M2: 70.2 (#166)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1490 | 1328 |

## Long Context

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 46.3 (#24)
- MiniMax-M2: 40.5 (#153)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1508 | 1331 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemini 3.8 Flash: 72.2 (#15)
- MiniMax-M2: 53.0 (#162)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1499 | 1340 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1492 | 1286 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1501 | 1361 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1748 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemini 3.8 Flash better than MiniMax-M2?

Gemini 3.8 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.8 to 37.4 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2 costs 2.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.8 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.8 Flash or MiniMax-M2?

MiniMax-M2 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.8 Flash lists at $0.75 and $3.75.

### Is Gemini 3.8 Flash or MiniMax-M2 better for coding?

Gemini 3.8 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 59.2 versus 39.3 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.8 Flash does, with 1.05M tokens against 205K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.8 Flash and MiniMax-M2 share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.8 Flash has 50 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2 has 21.