# MiniMax-M2.1 vs Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct

> MiniMax-M2.1 and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct score almost the same on the Noometry Index (38.4 vs 37.7), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/minimax-m2-1-vs-qwen3-coder-480b-a35b-instruct
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 20

## Summary

- They share 20 benchmarks with published results for both. MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher in 8 categories and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct in 1 category; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads 24.7 to 15.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Terminal-Bench: 36.6% for MiniMax-M2.1 and 27.2% for Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct.
- MiniMax-M2.1 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1.50 / $7.50 for Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct.
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 205K.

## Snapshot

| | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 38.4 | 37.7 |
| Rank | 177 | 186 |
| Context | 205K | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.30 | $1.50 |
| Output $/M | $1.20 | $7.50 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- MiniMax-M2.1: 40.1 (#132)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 36.2 (#199)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1384 | 1275 |
| LMArena Coding | 1421 | 1413 |
| ALE-Bench | 623.83 | 461.45 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 55.4% |
| GSO | — | 4.9% |
| WeirdML | — | 41.2% |
| AlgoTune | — | 1.44 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- MiniMax-M2.1: 27.7 (#91)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 23.7 (#116)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 36.6% | 27.2% |

## Reasoning

- MiniMax-M2.1: 15.8 (#301)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 24.7 (#141)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1410 | 1372 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 49.5% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 11.2% | — |

## Math

- MiniMax-M2.1: 35.6 (#142)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 34.9 (#151)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1396 | 1364 |

## Knowledge

- MiniMax-M2.1: 37.7 (#143)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 36.4 (#159)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1432 | 1337 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 11.8% | — |

## Multilingual

- MiniMax-M2.1: 50.2 (#123)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 47.8 (#143)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1378 | 1345 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1430 | 1356 |
| LMArena French | 1405 | 1394 |
| LMArena German | 1380 | 1324 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1287 | 1309 |
| LMArena Korean | 1297 | 1307 |
| LMArena Russian | 1386 | 1367 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1396 | 1360 |

## Instruction Following

- MiniMax-M2.1: 74.0 (#108)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 71.8 (#142)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1399 | 1356 |

## Long Context

- MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#98)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 42.0 (#126)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1416 | 1379 |

## Writing & Preference

- MiniMax-M2.1: 58.5 (#114)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 55.5 (#142)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2.1 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1392 | 1356 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1362 | 1333 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1396 | 1365 |

## FAQ

### Is MiniMax-M2.1 better than Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?

MiniMax-M2.1 and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct score almost the same on the Noometry Index (38.4 vs 37.7), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

### Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M2.1 or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?

MiniMax-M2.1 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct lists at $1.50 and $7.50.

### Is MiniMax-M2.1 or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct better for coding?

MiniMax-M2.1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.1 versus 36.2 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct does, with 262K tokens against 205K.

### How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M2.1 and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct share?

20 benchmarks have published results for both models. MiniMax-M2.1 has 22 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct has 25.