# MiniMax-M2 vs Qwen3.5-9B

> MiniMax-M2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.4 to 33.8 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-9B costs 4.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/minimax-m2-vs-qwen3-5-9b
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 1

## Summary

- They share 1 benchmark with published results for both. MiniMax-M2 scores higher in 3 categories and Qwen3.5-9B in 2 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in agentic & tool use, where MiniMax-M2 leads 25.1 to 14.5.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Terminal-Bench: 30% for MiniMax-M2 and 9.2% for Qwen3.5-9B.
- Qwen3.5-9B is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1.20 for MiniMax-M2.
- Qwen3.5-9B accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 205K.

## Snapshot

| | MiniMax-M2 | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | MiniMax | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 37.4 | 33.8 |
| Rank | 204 | 236 |
| Context | 205K | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.30 | $0.10 |
| Output $/M | $1.20 | $0.15 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- MiniMax-M2: 39.3 (#159)
- Qwen3.5-9B: 35.9 (#217)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | 61% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1297 | — |
| SciCode | — | 27.5% |
| LMArena Coding | 1370 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- MiniMax-M2: 25.1 (#109)
- Qwen3.5-9B: 14.5 (#151)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 30% | 9.2% |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 160.6 | — |

## Reasoning

- MiniMax-M2: 19.4 (#258)
- Qwen3.5-9B: 23.1 (#182)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 57.8% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 14.8% | — |
| CritPt | — | 0.3% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 12% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1357 | — |
| DTBench | — | 71.2% |
| LMCA | — | 24.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 139.46 |

## Math

- MiniMax-M2: 37.3 (#160)
- Qwen3.5-9B: 34.8 (#192)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 48.5% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 61.7% |
| LMArena Math | 1352 | — |

## Knowledge

- MiniMax-M2: 37.0 (#163)
- Qwen3.5-9B: 46.0 (#84)

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | — | 79% |
| LMArena Expert | 1337 | — |

## Multilingual

- MiniMax-M2: 45.3 (#171)
- Qwen3.5-9B: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1313 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1366 | — |
| LMArena French | 1335 | — |
| LMArena German | 1355 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1331 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1326 | — |

## Instruction Following

- MiniMax-M2: 70.2 (#166)
- Qwen3.5-9B: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1328 | — |

## Long Context

- MiniMax-M2: 40.5 (#153)
- Qwen3.5-9B: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1331 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- MiniMax-M2: 53.0 (#162)
- Qwen3.5-9B: —

| Benchmark | MiniMax-M2 | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1340 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1286 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1361 | — |

## FAQ

### Is MiniMax-M2 better than Qwen3.5-9B?

MiniMax-M2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.4 to 33.8 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-9B costs 4.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when MiniMax-M2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M2 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-M2 lists at $0.30 and $1.20.

### Is MiniMax-M2 or Qwen3.5-9B better for coding?

MiniMax-M2 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.3 versus 35.9 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.5-9B does, with 262K tokens against 205K.

### How many benchmarks do MiniMax-M2 and Qwen3.5-9B share?

1 benchmark has published results for both models. MiniMax-M2 has 21 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5-9B has 10.