# MiniMax-M2.1 vs Mistral Small 3.1

> MiniMax-M2.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.9 to 31.7 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/minimax-m2-1-vs-mistral-small-3-1
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher in 7 categories and Mistral Small 3.1 in 1 category; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where MiniMax-M2.1 leads 38.3 to 14.7.
- Mistral Small 3.1 is cheaper at $0.35 / $0.56 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for MiniMax-M2.1.
- MiniMax-M2.1 accepts more context: 205K tokens versus 128K.

## Snapshot

| | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 38.9 | 31.7 |
| Rank | 178 | 269 |
| Context | 205K | 128K |
| Input $/M | $0.30 | $0.35 |
| Output $/M | $1.20 | $0.56 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- MiniMax-M2.1: 40.4 (#143)
- Mistral Small 3.1: 38.3 (#179)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1421 | 1309 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1384 | — |
| ALE-Bench | 623.83 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- MiniMax-M2.1: 27.9 (#98)
- Mistral Small 3.1: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 36.6% | — |

## Reasoning

- MiniMax-M2.1: 16.6 (#302)
- Mistral Small 3.1: 19.7 (#254)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1411 | 1278 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 11.2% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 1% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 127.48 |

## Math

- MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#138)
- Mistral Small 3.1: 14.7 (#301)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1397 | 1262 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 3.9% |
| Omni-MATH | — | 24.8% |

## Knowledge

- MiniMax-M2.1: 38.3 (#147)
- Mistral Small 3.1: 22.6 (#271)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1431 | 1257 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 41.9% |
| MMLU-Pro | — | 61% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 11.8% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | — | 39.2% |

## Multimodal

- MiniMax-M2.1: —
- Mistral Small 3.1: 33.2 (#99)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1136 |

## Multilingual

- MiniMax-M2.1: 50.0 (#128)
- Mistral Small 3.1: 41.2 (#209)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1378 | 1255 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1430 | 1253 |
| LMArena French | 1404 | 1273 |
| LMArena German | 1381 | 1266 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1287 | 1208 |
| LMArena Korean | 1298 | 1206 |
| LMArena Russian | 1387 | 1263 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1397 | 1283 |

## Instruction Following

- MiniMax-M2.1: 73.8 (#112)
- Mistral Small 3.1: 63.6 (#230)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1400 | 1264 |
| IFEval | — | 75% |

## Long Context

- MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#101)
- Mistral Small 3.1: 39.5 (#178)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1416 | 1299 |

## Writing & Preference

- MiniMax-M2.1: 58.3 (#120)
- Mistral Small 3.1: 37.0 (#259)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1392 | 1277 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1361 | 1253 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1396 | 1270 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 761 |
| WildBench | — | 78.8% |

## FAQ

### Is MiniMax-M2.1 better than Mistral Small 3.1?

MiniMax-M2.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.9 to 31.7 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M2.1 or Mistral Small 3.1?

Mistral Small 3.1 is cheaper. It lists at $0.35 per million input tokens and $0.56 per million output tokens; MiniMax-M2.1 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.

### Is MiniMax-M2.1 or Mistral Small 3.1 better for coding?

MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.4 versus 38.3 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax-M2.1 does, with 205K tokens against 128K.

### How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M2.1 and Mistral Small 3.1 share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M2.1 has 22 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3.1 has 28.