# Inkling vs MiniMax M1

> Inkling is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.1 to 40.3 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax M1 costs 2.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Inkling's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/inkling-vs-minimax-m1
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Inkling scores higher in 6 categories and MiniMax M1 in 2 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Inkling leads 55.1 to 36.4.
- MiniMax M1 is cheaper at $0.55 / $2.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1.87 / $4.68 for Inkling.
- MiniMax M1 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 66K.

## Snapshot

| | Inkling | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Thinking Machines Lab | MiniMax |
| Noometry Index | 44.1 | 40.3 |
| Rank | 80 | 150 |
| Context | 66K | 1M |
| Input $/M | $1.87 | $0.55 |
| Output $/M | $4.68 | $2.20 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Inkling: 34.5 (#234)
- MiniMax M1: 39.9 (#153)

| Benchmark | Inkling | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1464 | 1359 |
| FrontierCode | 14% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1413 | — |
| FrontierSWE | 4.1% | — |
| SciCode | 47% | — |
| WeirdML | 32.3% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 946 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Inkling: 29.6 (#85)
- MiniMax M1: —

| Benchmark | Inkling | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 33.8% | — |
| τ²-bench Banking | 25% | — |

## Reasoning

- Inkling: 40.4 (#56)
- MiniMax M1: 26.9 (#126)

| Benchmark | Inkling | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1451 | 1339 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 36.5% | — |
| SimpleBench | 50% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 79.5% | — |
| CritPt | 5.4% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 21% | — |
| DTBench | 87.5% | — |
| LMCA | 37.6% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 148.54 | — |

## Math

- Inkling: 31.3 (#225)
- MiniMax M1: 37.5 (#151)

| Benchmark | Inkling | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1479 | 1361 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 33.3% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 4.9% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 88.9% | — |
| ProofBench | 0% | — |

## Knowledge

- Inkling: 55.1 (#49)
- MiniMax M1: 36.4 (#170)

| Benchmark | Inkling | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1465 | 1317 |
| GPQA Diamond | 88.3% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 40.3% | — |

## Multilingual

- Inkling: 54.0 (#52)
- MiniMax M1: 45.8 (#163)

| Benchmark | Inkling | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1434 | 1319 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1490 | 1360 |
| LMArena French | 1458 | 1370 |
| LMArena German | 1446 | 1350 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1429 | 1217 |
| LMArena Korean | 1404 | 1266 |
| LMArena Russian | 1429 | 1329 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1448 | 1353 |

## Instruction Following

- Inkling: 75.1 (#71)
- MiniMax M1: 69.3 (#174)

| Benchmark | Inkling | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1426 | 1312 |

## Long Context

- Inkling: 43.8 (#86)
- MiniMax M1: 41.4 (#141)

| Benchmark | Inkling | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1434 | 1326 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 69.4% |

## Writing & Preference

- Inkling: 65.2 (#51)
- MiniMax M1: 53.1 (#161)

| Benchmark | Inkling | MiniMax M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1441 | 1343 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1387 | 1298 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1436 | 1335 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1611 | — |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1226 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Inkling better than MiniMax M1?

Inkling is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.1 to 40.3 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax M1 costs 2.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Inkling's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Inkling or MiniMax M1?

MiniMax M1 is cheaper. It lists at $0.55 per million input tokens and $2.20 per million output tokens; Inkling lists at $1.87 and $4.68.

### Is Inkling or MiniMax M1 better for coding?

MiniMax M1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.9 versus 34.5 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax M1 does, with 1M tokens against 66K.

### How many benchmarks do Inkling and MiniMax M1 share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Inkling has 41 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax M1 has 18.