# Gemma 3 4B vs MiniMax-M2

> MiniMax-M2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.4 to 28.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 10× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-4b-vs-minimax-m2
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 13

## Summary

- They share 13 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 4B scores higher in 0 categories and MiniMax-M2 in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where MiniMax-M2 leads 37.0 to 11.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Kagi LLM Benchmark: 25.2% for Gemma 3 4B and 57.8% for MiniMax-M2.
- Gemma 3 4B is cheaper at $0.04 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for MiniMax-M2.
- MiniMax-M2 accepts more context: 205K tokens versus 131K.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 3 4B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | MiniMax |
| Noometry Index | 28.1 | 37.4 |
| Rank | 326 | 204 |
| Context | 131K | 205K |
| Input $/M | $0.04 | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | $0.08 | $1.20 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Gemma 3 4B: 35.9 (#215)
- MiniMax-M2: 39.3 (#159)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1230 | 1370 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 61% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1297 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 3 4B: 20.9 (#142)
- MiniMax-M2: 25.1 (#109)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 30% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 19.6% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 160.6 |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 3 4B: 13.2 (#335)
- MiniMax-M2: 19.4 (#258)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 25.2% | 57.8% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1253 | 1357 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 14.8% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| DTBench | 50.9% | — |
| LMCA | 2.8% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 116.02 | — |

## Math

- Gemma 3 4B: 16.8 (#292)
- MiniMax-M2: 37.3 (#160)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1239 | 1352 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 7.5% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 3 4B: 11.8 (#299)
- MiniMax-M2: 37.0 (#163)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1223 | 1337 |
| GPQA Diamond | 23.2% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 6.4% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 3 4B: 42.5 (#194)
- MiniMax-M2: 45.3 (#171)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1273 | 1313 |
| LMArena German | 1281 | 1355 |
| LMArena Russian | 1294 | 1331 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1366 |
| LMArena French | — | 1335 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1326 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 3 4B: 65.2 (#225)
- MiniMax-M2: 70.2 (#166)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1239 | 1328 |

## Long Context

- Gemma 3 4B: 38.7 (#194)
- MiniMax-M2: 40.5 (#153)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1273 | 1331 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 3 4B: 42.0 (#239)
- MiniMax-M2: 53.0 (#162)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1291 | 1340 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1271 | 1286 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1255 | 1361 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1068 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 3 4B better than MiniMax-M2?

MiniMax-M2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.4 to 28.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 10× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 4B or MiniMax-M2?

Gemma 3 4B is cheaper. It lists at $0.04 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; MiniMax-M2 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.

### Is Gemma 3 4B or MiniMax-M2 better for coding?

MiniMax-M2 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.3 versus 35.9 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax-M2 does, with 205K tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 4B and MiniMax-M2 share?

13 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 4B has 22 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2 has 21.