# Granite 4.0 Micro vs MiniMax-M2.1

> MiniMax-M2.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.4 to 28.8 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.0 Micro costs 13× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M2.1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-4-0-micro-vs-minimax-m2-1
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 0

## Summary

- The widest gap is in knowledge, where MiniMax-M2.1 leads 37.7 to 9.9.
- Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper at $0.017 / $0.11 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for MiniMax-M2.1.
- MiniMax-M2.1 accepts more context: 205K tokens versus 131K.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.0 Micro | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | MiniMax |
| Noometry Index | 28.8 | 38.4 |
| Rank | 312 | 177 |
| Context | 131K | 205K |
| Input $/M | $0.017 | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | $0.11 | $1.20 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Granite 4.0 Micro: —
- MiniMax-M2.1: 40.1 (#132)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1384 |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1421 |
| ALE-Bench | — | 623.83 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Granite 4.0 Micro: —
- MiniMax-M2.1: 27.7 (#91)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 36.6% |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.0 Micro: 18.5 (#261)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 15.8 (#301)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 11.2% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1410 |

## Math

- Granite 4.0 Micro: 11.2 (#301)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 35.6 (#142)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 2.8% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 20.9% | — |
| LMArena Math | — | 1396 |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.0 Micro: 9.9 (#299)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 37.7 (#143)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 28.3% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 39.5% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 11.8% |
| GPQA (HELM) | 30.7% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1432 |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.0 Micro: —
- MiniMax-M2.1: 50.2 (#123)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1378 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1430 |
| LMArena French | — | 1405 |
| LMArena German | — | 1380 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1287 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1297 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1386 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1396 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.0 Micro: 70.0 (#164)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 74.0 (#108)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| IFEval | 84.9% | — |
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1399 |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.0 Micro: —
- MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#98)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1416 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.0 Micro: 46.7 (#212)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 58.5 (#114)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1392 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1362 |
| WildBench | 67% | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1396 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.0 Micro better than MiniMax-M2.1?

MiniMax-M2.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.4 to 28.8 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.0 Micro costs 13× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M2.1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Granite 4.0 Micro or MiniMax-M2.1?

Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper. It lists at $0.017 per million input tokens and $0.11 per million output tokens; MiniMax-M2.1 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.

### Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax-M2.1 does, with 205K tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.0 Micro and MiniMax-M2.1 share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.0 Micro has 8 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2.1 has 22.