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Nova Lite 1.0 vs MiniMax M2.5

MiniMax M2.5 leads Nova Lite 1.0 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 22.8 to 6.7, and Nova Lite 1.0 costs 5.0x less per output token ($0.24 vs $1.20 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 34 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Nova Lite 1.0 Replace MiniMax M2.5
Nova Lite 1.0Amazon
Coding
No data
Overall
No data
Output $/M
$0.24
0
MiniMax M2.5MiniMax
Coding
37.2
Overall
37.3
Output $/M
$1.20
34
vs boards won of 34 shared

Nova Lite 1.0 or MiniMax M2.5: which to pick

Only MiniMax M2.5 has a coding score, 37.2 on the Vibe Coding Index; Nova Lite 1.0 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.

Pick Nova Lite 1.0 for output tokens 5.0x cheaper ($0.24 vs $1.20 per million) and a larger context window (300K against 205K tokens).

Model ANova Lite 1.0AmazonNot benchmarkedNo coding benchmarkNo cost per solved taskModel BMiniMax M2.5MiniMax37.2/1003 independent benchmarks$0.62 per solved task
Shared results
34
Nova Lite 1.0 only
7
MiniMax M2.5 only
34
Like-for-like categories
7 of 9

Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.

Which one for your work

Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.

At a glance

Coding index
Nova Lite 1.0 not benchmarked, MiniMax M2.5 37.2 from 3 benchmarks.
Widest category
Agentic work, 77.8 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
Widest single gap
τ²-Bench Telecom: Nova Lite 1.0 17.5% against MiniMax M2.5 95.3%, 77.8 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Nova Lite 1.0 $0.24 against MiniMax M2.5 $1.20 per million output tokens, 5.0x apart.
Context window
Nova Lite 1.0 takes 300K tokens, MiniMax M2.5 205K.

Benchmark by benchmark

First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.

Boards won, where both have a result
CategoryNova Lite 1.0BarsMiniMax M2.5Ties
Coding03
Intelligence01
Agentic work01
Reasoning05
Math02
Knowledge04
General018
All shared boards034
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index03
Coding benchmarks for Nova Lite 1.0 and MiniMax M2.5
BenchmarkNova Lite 1.0MiniMax M2.5Leader
SWE-bench VerifiedNot measured75.8%Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
SWE-bench MultilingualNot measured68.3%Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena WebDevNot measured1386Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)Not measured79.2%Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)Not measured74.2%Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)Not measured14.8%Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run)16.7%Not measuredOnly Nova Lite 1.0 measured
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)0.8%34.8%MiniMax M2.5
Terminal-BenchNot measured42.7%Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
ALE-BenchNot measured618.2Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: coding12391380MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: software and IT12411383MiniMax M2.5
LMArena WebDev: ReactNot measured1374Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena WebDev: HTMLNot measured1414Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 25 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
Intelligence benchmarks for Nova Lite 1.0 and MiniMax M2.5
BenchmarkNova Lite 1.0MiniMax M2.5Leader
AA Intelligence Index6.722.8MiniMax M2.5
Epoch Capabilities IndexNot measured146.6Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
Agentic work benchmarks for Nova Lite 1.0 and MiniMax M2.5
BenchmarkNova Lite 1.0MiniMax M2.5Leader
τ²-Bench Telecom17.5%95.3%MiniMax M2.5
Vending-Bench 2Not measured-$23Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 39 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
Reasoning benchmarks for Nova Lite 1.0 and MiniMax M2.5
BenchmarkNova Lite 1.0MiniMax M2.5Leader
GPQA DiamondNot measured82.1%Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)43.3%84.8%MiniMax M2.5
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)4.3%20.5%MiniMax M2.5
ARC-AGINot measured63.7%Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
ARC-AGI-2Not measured4.9%Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts12201372MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: expert12011378MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English12261384MiniMax M2.5
Kagi LLM BenchmarkNot measured55.2%Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
Math benchmarks for Nova Lite 1.0 and MiniMax M2.5
BenchmarkNova Lite 1.0MiniMax M2.5Leader
AIMENot measured88.8%Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
AA Math Index7.0Not measuredOnly Nova Lite 1.0 measured
AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run)7.0%Not measuredOnly Nova Lite 1.0 measured
ProofBenchNot measured4.0%Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: math12271378MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: mathematical work12351378MiniMax M2.5
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
Knowledge benchmarks for Nova Lite 1.0 and MiniMax M2.5
BenchmarkNova Lite 1.0MiniMax M2.5Leader
MMLU ProNot measured80.1%Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LegalBench (Vals AI)Not measured80.0%Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
CaseLaw (Vals AI)Not measured53.5%Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)Not measured59.6%Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
TaxEval (Vals AI)Not measured68.2%Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
MedQA (Vals AI)Not measured92.5%Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run)59.0%Not measuredOnly Nova Lite 1.0 measured
MMLU77.0%Not measuredOnly Nova Lite 1.0 measured
LMArena Text: science12321369MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare12131357MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: legal and government12381366MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: business and finance12191356MiniMax M2.5
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
Web design benchmarks for Nova Lite 1.0 and MiniMax M2.5
BenchmarkNova Lite 1.0MiniMax M2.5Leader
Design Arena: websitesNot measured1222Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
Design Arena: UI componentsNot measured1173Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
Design Arena: game devNot measured1176Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
Design Arena: data vizNot measured1172Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
Design Arena: 3DNot measured1170Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
Design Arena: all code categoriesNot measured1207Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
Design Arena: SVGNot measured1150Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index018
General benchmarks for Nova Lite 1.0 and MiniMax M2.5
BenchmarkNova Lite 1.0MiniMax M2.5Leader
IFBench34.1%71.6%MiniMax M2.5
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)19.0%73.3%MiniMax M2.5
CL-benchNot measured11.4%Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
CL-bench LifeNot measured6.3%Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text12291359MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: instruction following12051353MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: creative writing11971331MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Vision990Not measuredOnly Nova Lite 1.0 measured
LMArena Text: English12431380MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: non-English12081338MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: Chinese12251393MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: German12291361MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: Japanese11531171MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: Korean11531233MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: French12381363MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: Spanish12261353MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: Russian12161359MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: PolishNot measured1334Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: multi-turn11991364MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: longer queries12341366MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: writing and language12111345MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Text: entertainment and media11761329MiniMax M2.5
LMArena Vision: English999Not measuredOnly Nova Lite 1.0 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 23 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for Nova Lite 1.0 and MiniMax M2.5
BenchmarkNova Lite 1.0MiniMax M2.5Leader
Neither model has a result on 5 boards here

What each workload costs

Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.

Chat turn

1K input + 500 output tokens

Nova Lite 1.0$0.0002Fits in one request
MiniMax M2.5$0.0009Fits in one request

Nova Lite 1.0 costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Nova Lite 1.0$0.0037Fits in one request
MiniMax M2.5$0.019Fits in one request

Nova Lite 1.0 costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Nova Lite 1.0$0.014Fits in one request
MiniMax M2.5$0.072Exceeds the context window

Nova Lite 1.0 costs less

Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.

Specification differences

The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.

Specifications of Nova Lite 1.0 and MiniMax M2.5
SpecificationAmazon Nova Lite 1.0MiniMax M2.5
MakerAmazonMiniMax
WeightsNo public weights listedOpen weights
ReleasedDecember 5, 2024February 12, 2026
Context window300K205K
Input $/Mtok$0.06$0.30
Output $/Mtok$0.24$1.20
Coding indexNot benchmarked37.2
Independent measurements behind it03
Cost per solved taskNot computable$0.62
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Nova Lite 1.0 better than MiniMax M2.5 for coding?

Only MiniMax M2.5 has a coding score, 37.2 on the Vibe Coding Index; Nova Lite 1.0 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Nova Lite 1.0 for output tokens 5.0x cheaper ($0.24 vs $1.20 per million) and a larger context window (300K against 205K tokens).

Which is cheaper, Nova Lite 1.0 or MiniMax M2.5?

Nova Lite 1.0 costs $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.24 per million output tokens; MiniMax M2.5 costs $0.30 and $1.20. Cost per solved task is known for MiniMax M2.5 only.

Which has the bigger context window, Nova Lite 1.0 or MiniMax M2.5?

Nova Lite 1.0, with 300K tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks is the Nova Lite 1.0 vs MiniMax M2.5 comparison based on?

34 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Nova Lite 1.0's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and MiniMax M2.5's on 3. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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