Standard Compute
Model Comparison 2026

MiniMax M2.1 vs MiniMax M3

MiniMax M2.1
MiniMax · Balanced · Open weights
$0.57/1M · 205K ctx
MiniMax M3
MiniMax · Balanced · Open weights
$0.57/1M · 1.0M ctx

Community Vote

Pick a winner in each dimension — change your vote anytime.

Output Quality
Correctness and depth of what it produces
Agentic Ability
Tool calls, instruction-following, and multi-step tasks
Speed
Tokens per second and time-to-first-token
Value for $
How much capability you get per dollar
Reliability
Consistent results — fewer refusals, loops, and format breaks

Specs & Pricing, Side by Side

Spec
MiniMax M2.1
MiniMax M3
Maker
MiniMax
MiniMax
Blended price / 1M
$0.57
$0.57
Input / output
$0.30 in · $1.20 out / 1M tokens
$0.30 in · $1.20 out / 1M tokens
Context window
205K
1.0M
Open weights
Yes
Yes
Tool use
Yes
Yes
Reasoning
Yes
Yes
Output Quality
7.8
8.4
Agentic Ability
8.1
8.7
Speed
8.0
7.8
Value for $
9.5
9.1
Reliability
8.3
8.6

Pricing and capabilities synced from the OpenRouter catalogue. Scores are editorial (0–10).

Verdict: MiniMax M2.1 or MiniMax M3?

Updated 2026-08-02

Choose MiniMax M2.1 if you want tool-heavy personal and autonomous agents on a budget. Choose MiniMax M3 if you want open-weight autonomous agents that lean on tool use.

In our editorial scoring, MiniMax M3 leads in 3 of five dimensions (output quality, agentic ability and reliability), while MiniMax M2.1 leads in 2. On price, MiniMax M2.1 runs about $0.57 per 1M tokens (blended) and is open-weight; MiniMax M3 is about $0.57 and open-weight.

Where MiniMax M2.1 falls short
  • Shorter context than M3
  • Behind frontier on quality
Full MiniMax M2.1 breakdown →
Where MiniMax M3 falls short
  • Below frontier on raw quality
  • Newer, less battle-tested than V3.2/GLM
Full MiniMax M3 breakdown →

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