# Magistral Small vs MiniMax-M2

> MiniMax-M2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.9 to 29.9 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/magistral-small-vs-minimax-m2
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 1

## Summary

- They share 1 benchmark with published results for both. Magistral Small scores higher in 0 categories and MiniMax-M2 in 4 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where MiniMax-M2 leads 18.6 to 6.9.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Kagi LLM Benchmark: 6.3% for Magistral Small and 57.8% for MiniMax-M2.
- MiniMax-M2 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $1.50 for Magistral Small.
- MiniMax-M2 accepts more context: 205K tokens versus 128K.

## Snapshot

| | Magistral Small | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | MiniMax |
| Noometry Index | 29.9 | 36.9 |
| Rank | 289 | 201 |
| Context | 128K | 205K |
| Input $/M | $0.50 | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | $1.50 | $1.20 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Magistral Small: 37.8 (#172)
- MiniMax-M2: 39.1 (#151)

| Benchmark | Magistral Small | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 61% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1297 |
| SciCode | 35.2% | — |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1370 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Magistral Small: —
- MiniMax-M2: 24.9 (#102)

| Benchmark | Magistral Small | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 30% |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 160.6 |

## Reasoning

- Magistral Small: 6.9 (#345)
- MiniMax-M2: 18.6 (#256)

| Benchmark | Magistral Small | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 6.3% | 57.8% |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 0% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 14.8% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 5% | — |
| CritPt | 0.3% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 3% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1357 |
| DTBench | 61.3% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 133.19 | — |

## Math

- Magistral Small: 24.9 (#253)
- MiniMax-M2: 34.6 (#158)

| Benchmark | Magistral Small | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 30% | — |
| LMArena Math | — | 1350 |

## Knowledge

- Magistral Small: 30.9 (#215)
- MiniMax-M2: 36.3 (#160)

| Benchmark | Magistral Small | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 56.1% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1336 |

## Multilingual

- Magistral Small: —
- MiniMax-M2: 45.6 (#165)

| Benchmark | Magistral Small | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1314 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1367 |
| LMArena French | — | 1336 |
| LMArena German | — | 1366 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1332 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1326 |

## Instruction Following

- Magistral Small: —
- MiniMax-M2: 70.4 (#160)

| Benchmark | Magistral Small | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1329 |

## Long Context

- Magistral Small: —
- MiniMax-M2: 40.5 (#148)

| Benchmark | Magistral Small | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1332 |

## Writing & Preference

- Magistral Small: —
- MiniMax-M2: 53.3 (#157)

| Benchmark | Magistral Small | MiniMax-M2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1340 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1288 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1362 |

## FAQ

### Is Magistral Small better than MiniMax-M2?

MiniMax-M2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.9 to 29.9 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Magistral Small or MiniMax-M2?

MiniMax-M2 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Magistral Small lists at $0.50 and $1.50.

### Is Magistral Small or MiniMax-M2 better for coding?

MiniMax-M2 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.1 versus 37.8 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax-M2 does, with 205K tokens against 128K.

### How many benchmarks do Magistral Small and MiniMax-M2 share?

1 benchmark has published results for both models. Magistral Small has 10 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2 has 21.