# MiniMax-M2.1 vs Qwen3 8B

> MiniMax-M2.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.4 to 33.3 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3 8B costs 1.7× 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-qwen3-8b
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 1

## Summary

- They share 1 benchmark with published results for both. MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher in 4 categories and Qwen3 8B in 2 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in coding, where MiniMax-M2.1 leads 40.1 to 33.4.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Vectara Hallucination Rate: 11.8% for MiniMax-M2.1 and 4.8% for Qwen3 8B.
- Qwen3 8B is cheaper at $0.18 / $0.70 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for MiniMax-M2.1.
- MiniMax-M2.1 accepts more context: 205K tokens versus 131K.

## Snapshot

| | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 38.4 | 33.3 |
| Rank | 177 | 237 |
| Context | 205K | 131K |
| Input $/M | $0.30 | $0.18 |
| Output $/M | $1.20 | $0.70 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- MiniMax-M2.1: 40.1 (#132)
- Qwen3 8B: 33.4 (#245)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1384 | — |
| SciCode | — | 22.6% |
| LMArena Coding | 1421 | — |
| ALE-Bench | 623.83 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- MiniMax-M2.1: 27.7 (#91)
- Qwen3 8B: 29.9 (#71)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 36.6% | — |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 42.6% |

## Reasoning

- MiniMax-M2.1: 15.8 (#301)
- Qwen3 8B: 16.1 (#299)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 11.2% | — |
| CritPt | — | 0% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 5% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1410 | — |
| DTBench | — | 59.7% |
| LMCA | — | 8.8% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 136.17 |

## Math

- MiniMax-M2.1: 35.6 (#142)
- Qwen3 8B: 33.3 (#176)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 56.1% |
| LMArena Math | 1396 | — |

## Knowledge

- MiniMax-M2.1: 37.7 (#143)
- Qwen3 8B: 36.1 (#164)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 11.8% | 4.8% |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 56.8% |
| LMArena Expert | 1432 | — |

## Multilingual

- MiniMax-M2.1: 50.2 (#123)
- Qwen3 8B: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| 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)
- Qwen3 8B: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1399 | — |

## Long Context

- MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#98)
- Qwen3 8B: 37.8 (#205)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 62.1% |
| LMArena Longer Query | 1416 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- MiniMax-M2.1: 58.5 (#114)
- Qwen3 8B: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1392 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1362 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1396 | — |

## FAQ

### Is MiniMax-M2.1 better than Qwen3 8B?

MiniMax-M2.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.4 to 33.3 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3 8B costs 1.7× 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 Qwen3 8B?

Qwen3 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.18 per million input tokens and $0.70 per million output tokens; MiniMax-M2.1 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.

### Is MiniMax-M2.1 or Qwen3 8B better for coding?

MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.1 versus 33.4 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax-M2.1 does, with 205K tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M2.1 and Qwen3 8B share?

1 benchmark has published results for both models. MiniMax-M2.1 has 22 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 8B has 11.