# Grok 4.3 vs MiniMax-M2.1

> Grok 4.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.6 to 38.4 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2.1 costs 3.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/grok-4-3-vs-minimax-m2-1
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 20

## Summary

- They share 20 benchmarks with published results for both. Grok 4.3 scores higher in 6 categories and MiniMax-M2.1 in 3 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Grok 4.3 leads 34.9 to 15.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 55.2% for Grok 4.3 and 11.2% for MiniMax-M2.1.
- MiniMax-M2.1 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1.25 / $2.50 for Grok 4.3.
- Grok 4.3 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 205K.
- MiniMax-M2.1 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Grok 4.3 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | xAI | MiniMax |
| Noometry Index | 43.6 | 38.4 |
| Rank | 80 | 177 |
| Context | 1M | 205K |
| Input $/M | $1.25 | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | $2.50 | $1.20 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Grok 4.3: 41.3 (#117)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 40.1 (#132)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1357 | 1384 |
| LMArena Coding | 1415 | 1421 |
| ALE-Bench | 944.17 | 623.83 |
| SciCode | 47.3% | — |
| WeirdML | 49.9% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Grok 4.3: 27.6 (#93)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 27.7 (#91)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 36.6% |
| GDP.pdf | 8% | — |
| LMArena Search | 1165 | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 35.26 | — |

## Reasoning

- Grok 4.3: 34.9 (#60)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 15.8 (#301)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 55.2% | 11.2% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1397 | 1410 |
| CritPt | 8% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 25% | — |
| DTBench | 90.7% | — |
| LMCA | 38.3% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 149.13 | — |
| ForecastBench | 60.3 | — |

## Math

- Grok 4.3: 45.8 (#60)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 35.6 (#142)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1388 | 1396 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 42.8% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 14.6% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 93.3% | — |
| ProofBench | 11% | — |

## Knowledge

- Grok 4.3: 52.5 (#57)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 37.7 (#143)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1385 | 1432 |
| GPQA Diamond | 88.8% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 33.2% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 11.8% |

## Multimodal

- Grok 4.3: 31.6 (#96)
- MiniMax-M2.1: —

| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1231 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 0% | — |

## Multilingual

- Grok 4.3: 50.7 (#114)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 50.2 (#123)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1385 | 1378 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1423 | 1430 |
| LMArena French | 1412 | 1405 |
| LMArena German | 1395 | 1380 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1379 | 1287 |
| LMArena Korean | 1357 | 1297 |
| LMArena Russian | 1399 | 1386 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1402 | 1396 |

## Instruction Following

- Grok 4.3: 72.3 (#135)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 74.0 (#108)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1366 | 1399 |

## Long Context

- Grok 4.3: 42.5 (#118)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#98)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1393 | 1416 |

## Writing & Preference

- Grok 4.3: 58.6 (#112)
- MiniMax-M2.1: 58.5 (#114)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.3 | MiniMax-M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1397 | 1392 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1380 | 1362 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1406 | 1396 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1075 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Grok 4.3 better than MiniMax-M2.1?

Grok 4.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.6 to 38.4 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2.1 costs 3.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Grok 4.3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Grok 4.3 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; Grok 4.3 lists at $1.25 and $2.50.

### Is Grok 4.3 or MiniMax-M2.1 better for coding?

Grok 4.3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.3 versus 40.1 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Grok 4.3 does, with 1M tokens against 205K.

### How many benchmarks do Grok 4.3 and MiniMax-M2.1 share?

20 benchmarks have published results for both models. Grok 4.3 has 40 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2.1 has 22.