# MiniMax M1 vs MiniMax-M2.5

> MiniMax M1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 38.1 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2.5 costs 1.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax M1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/minimax-m1-vs-minimax-m2-5
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax M1 scores higher in 3 categories and MiniMax-M2.5 in 5 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where MiniMax M1 leads 34.8 to 25.8.
- MiniMax-M2.5 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.40 / $2.20 for MiniMax M1.
- MiniMax M1 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 205K.

## Snapshot

| | MiniMax M1 | MiniMax-M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | MiniMax |
| Noometry Index | 39.7 | 38.1 |
| Rank | 146 | 181 |
| Context | 1M | 205K |
| Input $/M | $0.40 | $0.30 |
| Output $/M | $2.20 | $1.20 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- MiniMax M1: 39.2 (#149)
- MiniMax-M2.5: 47.9 (#53)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | MiniMax-M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1359 | 1380 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 75.8% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1386 |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | — | 68.3% |
| ALE-Bench | — | 618.17 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- MiniMax M1: —
- MiniMax-M2.5: 30.2 (#70)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | MiniMax-M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 42.7% |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | -23.16 |

## Reasoning

- MiniMax M1: 25.8 (#125)
- MiniMax-M2.5: 17.6 (#281)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | MiniMax-M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1340 | 1372 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | — | 4.9% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 55.2% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 16.8% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | — | 63.7% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 146.68 |

## Math

- MiniMax M1: 34.8 (#152)
- MiniMax-M2.5: 25.8 (#242)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | MiniMax-M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1360 | 1378 |
| ProofBench | — | 4% |

## Knowledge

- MiniMax M1: 35.7 (#168)
- MiniMax-M2.5: 38.6 (#132)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | MiniMax-M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1316 | 1378 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 9.1% |

## Multilingual

- MiniMax M1: 46.0 (#157)
- MiniMax-M2.5: 47.3 (#147)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | MiniMax-M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1320 | 1338 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1361 | 1392 |
| LMArena French | 1369 | 1363 |
| LMArena German | 1350 | 1361 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1220 | 1169 |
| LMArena Korean | 1263 | 1232 |
| LMArena Russian | 1330 | 1359 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1354 | 1354 |

## Instruction Following

- MiniMax M1: 69.5 (#169)
- MiniMax-M2.5: 71.7 (#143)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | MiniMax-M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1312 | 1353 |

## Long Context

- MiniMax M1: 41.4 (#136)
- MiniMax-M2.5: 37.4 (#211)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | MiniMax-M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1326 | 1367 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 69.4% | — |
| CL-bench | — | 11.4% |
| CL-bench Life | — | 6.3% |

## Writing & Preference

- MiniMax M1: 53.3 (#155)
- MiniMax-M2.5: 54.1 (#149)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | MiniMax-M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1343 | 1359 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1298 | 1331 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1335 | 1364 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1361 |

## FAQ

### Is MiniMax M1 better than MiniMax-M2.5?

MiniMax M1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 38.1 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2.5 costs 1.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax M1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, MiniMax M1 or MiniMax-M2.5?

MiniMax-M2.5 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; MiniMax M1 lists at $0.40 and $2.20.

### Is MiniMax M1 or MiniMax-M2.5 better for coding?

MiniMax-M2.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 47.9 versus 39.2 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax M1 does, with 1M tokens against 205K.

### How many benchmarks do MiniMax M1 and MiniMax-M2.5 share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax M1 has 18 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2.5 has 33.