# MiniMax-M2.1 vs Mistral Small 3.2

> MiniMax-M2.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.4 to 30.8 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3.2 costs 4.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M2.1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/minimax-m2-1-vs-mistral-small-3-2
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 0

## Summary

- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where MiniMax-M2.1 leads 58.5 to 45.1.
- Mistral Small 3.2 is cheaper at $0.0938 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for MiniMax-M2.1.
- Mistral Small 3.2 accepts more context: 256K tokens versus 205K.

## Snapshot

| | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 38.4 | 30.8 |
| Rank | 177 | 271 |
| Context | 205K | 256K |
| Input $/M | $0.30 | $0.0938 |
| Output $/M | $1.20 | $0.25 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- MiniMax-M2.1: 40.1 (#132)
- Mistral Small 3.2: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1384 | — |
| LMArena Coding | 1421 | — |
| ALE-Bench | 623.83 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- MiniMax-M2.1: 27.7 (#91)
- Mistral Small 3.2: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 36.6% | — |

## Reasoning

- MiniMax-M2.1: 15.8 (#301)
- Mistral Small 3.2: 17.5 (#282)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 40.4% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 11.2% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 1% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1410 | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 131.73 |

## Math

- MiniMax-M2.1: 35.6 (#142)
- Mistral Small 3.2: 24.9 (#251)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 30.3% |
| LMArena Math | 1396 | — |

## Knowledge

- MiniMax-M2.1: 37.7 (#143)
- Mistral Small 3.2: 26.8 (#249)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | — | 49.1% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 11.8% | — |
| LMArena Expert | 1432 | — |

## Multilingual

- MiniMax-M2.1: 50.2 (#123)
- Mistral Small 3.2: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1378 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1430 | — |
| LMArena French | 1405 | — |
| LMArena German | 1380 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1287 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1297 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1386 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1396 | — |

## Instruction Following

- MiniMax-M2.1: 74.0 (#108)
- Mistral Small 3.2: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1399 | — |

## Long Context

- MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#98)
- Mistral Small 3.2: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1416 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- MiniMax-M2.1: 58.5 (#114)
- Mistral Small 3.2: 45.1 (#219)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1392 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1362 | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1255 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1396 | — |

## FAQ

### Is MiniMax-M2.1 better than Mistral Small 3.2?

MiniMax-M2.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.4 to 30.8 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3.2 costs 4.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M2.1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M2.1 or Mistral Small 3.2?

Mistral Small 3.2 is cheaper. It lists at $0.0938 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; MiniMax-M2.1 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Mistral Small 3.2 does, with 256K tokens against 205K.

### How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M2.1 and Mistral Small 3.2 share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M2.1 has 22 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3.2 has 6.