# MiniMax M1 vs Qwen3.5-9B

> MiniMax M1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.3 to 33.8 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-9B costs 8.6× 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-qwen3-5-9b
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 0

## Summary

- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.5-9B leads 46.0 to 36.4.
- Qwen3.5-9B is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.55 / $2.20 for MiniMax M1.
- MiniMax M1 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.

## Snapshot

| | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 40.3 | 33.8 |
| Rank | 150 | 236 |
| Context | 1M | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.55 | $0.10 |
| Output $/M | $2.20 | $0.15 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- MiniMax M1: 39.9 (#153)
- Qwen3.5-9B: 35.9 (#217)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | — | 27.5% |
| LMArena Coding | 1359 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- MiniMax M1: —
- Qwen3.5-9B: 14.5 (#151)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 9.2% |

## Reasoning

- MiniMax M1: 26.9 (#126)
- Qwen3.5-9B: 23.1 (#182)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | — | 0.3% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 12% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1339 | — |
| DTBench | — | 71.2% |
| LMCA | — | 24.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 139.46 |

## Math

- MiniMax M1: 37.5 (#151)
- Qwen3.5-9B: 34.8 (#192)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 48.5% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 61.7% |
| LMArena Math | 1361 | — |

## Knowledge

- MiniMax M1: 36.4 (#170)
- Qwen3.5-9B: 46.0 (#84)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | — | 79% |
| LMArena Expert | 1317 | — |

## Multilingual

- MiniMax M1: 45.8 (#163)
- Qwen3.5-9B: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1319 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1360 | — |
| LMArena French | 1370 | — |
| LMArena German | 1350 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1217 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1266 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1329 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1353 | — |

## Instruction Following

- MiniMax M1: 69.3 (#174)
- Qwen3.5-9B: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1312 | — |

## Long Context

- MiniMax M1: 41.4 (#141)
- Qwen3.5-9B: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | 69.4% | — |
| LMArena Longer Query | 1326 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- MiniMax M1: 53.1 (#161)
- Qwen3.5-9B: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax M1 | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1343 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1298 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1335 | — |

## FAQ

### Is MiniMax M1 better than Qwen3.5-9B?

MiniMax M1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.3 to 33.8 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-9B costs 8.6× 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 Qwen3.5-9B?

Qwen3.5-9B is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; MiniMax M1 lists at $0.55 and $2.20.

### Is MiniMax M1 or Qwen3.5-9B better for coding?

MiniMax M1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.9 versus 35.9 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax M1 does, with 1M tokens against 262K.

### How many benchmarks do MiniMax M1 and Qwen3.5-9B share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax M1 has 18 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5-9B has 10.