Claude Opus 4.8 vs MiniMax M2
Claude Opus 4.8 leads MiniMax M2 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 41.8 to 18.6, and MiniMax M2 costs 24.5x less per output token ($1.02 vs $25.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 44 benchmarks have a result for both.
Claude Opus 4.8 or MiniMax M2: which to pick
Only Claude Opus 4.8 has a coding score, 65.0 on the Vibe Coding Index; MiniMax M2 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick MiniMax M2 for output tokens 24.5x cheaper ($1.02 vs $25.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.702 against $2.17).
- Shared results
- 44
- Claude Opus 4.8 only
- 86
- MiniMax M2 only
- 6
- Like-for-like categories
- 8 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.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Only Claude Opus 4.8 has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Claude Opus 4.8
Claude Opus 4.8 leads, 41.8 against 18.6.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Claude Opus 4.8 has a AA Agentic Index result, 41.9.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Claude Opus 4.8 has a GPQA Diamond result, 92.4%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Claude Opus 4.8 has a MMLU Pro result, 89.6%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Claude Opus 4.8
Claude Opus 4.8 leads, 1258 against 1143.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Claude Opus 4.8
Claude Opus 4.8 takes 1M tokens against 205K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
MiniMax M2
Claude Opus 4.8 $0.018, MiniMax M2 $0.0008 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
MiniMax M2
Claude Opus 4.8 $2.17, MiniMax M2 $0.702.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- Claude Opus 4.8 65.0 from 6 benchmarks, MiniMax M2 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Coding, 29.6 points apart on average over 5 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- LMArena WebDev: HTML: Claude Opus 4.8 1543 against MiniMax M2 1306, 39.4 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Claude Opus 4.8 $25.00 against MiniMax M2 $1.02 per million output tokens, 24.5x apart.
- Context window
- Claude Opus 4.8 takes 1M tokens, MiniMax M2 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.
| Category | Claude Opus 4.8 | Bars | MiniMax M2 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 5 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 2 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 6 | 0 | ||
| Math | 2 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 4 | 0 | ||
| Web design | 7 | 0 | ||
| General | 16 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 43 | 1 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index50
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | MiniMax M2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | Not measured | 61.0% | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LiveBench coding | 77.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1556 | 1297 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| AA Coding Index | 74.3 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 87.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 88.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 23.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 82.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 47.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 1.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 71.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | 59.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 82.6% | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| SciCode | 54.4% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 58.3% | 25.8% | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| Terminal-Bench | Not measured | 30.0% | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| FrontierCode | 46.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| GSO-Bench | 47.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| WeirdML | 82.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1490 | 1371 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1488 | 1373 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1557 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1543 | 1306 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| SciCode | 12.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | MiniMax M2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 41.8 | 18.6 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 159.0 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | MiniMax M2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 41.9 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1233 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1249 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1222 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1233 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 1231 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building games | 1239 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Design Arena: HTML slides | 1171 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1202 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 1303 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LiveBench research | 81.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LiveBench browser | 96.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 48.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 53.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 30.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 43.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 69.4% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | 4.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Time Horizon Index (Vals AI) | 11.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 94.4% | 86.8% | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| APEX-Agents | 48.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Remote Labor Index | 8.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| OSWorld 2.0 | 20.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| DeepResearch Bench | 50.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| PostTrainBench | 33.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $5,787 | $161 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Search | 1204 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index60
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | MiniMax M2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 92.4% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | 89.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 86.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 92.0% | 77.7% | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 48.7% | 13.7% | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 91.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| ARC-AGI | 92.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 72.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| SimpleBench | 64.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Chess puzzles | 52.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 36.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| EBR-bench | 28.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1482 | 1357 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1503 | 1338 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1487 | 1376 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1315 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1337 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 88.8% | 57.8% | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | MiniMax M2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | Not measured | 78.3 | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 78.3% | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 98.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 80.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 56.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| ProofBench | 69.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1486 | 1351 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1497 | 1368 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | MiniMax M2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 89.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 83.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 66.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 75.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 69.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 53.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 82.0% | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 53.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1477 | 1348 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1464 | 1367 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1477 | 1349 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1458 | 1336 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 53.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index70
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | MiniMax M2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1258 | 1143 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1255 | 1137 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1264 | 1118 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1240 | 1140 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1222 | 1098 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1255 | 1135 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1195 | 1100 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1277 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LiveBench design | 78.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index161
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | MiniMax M2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench data analysis | 66.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 68.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 54.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 85.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 70.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| IFBench | 62.2% | 72.3% | MiniMax M2 |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 77.7% | 64.3% | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| DTBench | 94.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LMCA | 57.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 87.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Furniture assembly | 42.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1461 | 1340 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1476 | 1329 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1454 | 1286 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Vision | 1294 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1468 | 1364 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1450 | 1313 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1506 | 1366 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Text: German | 1472 | 1357 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1442 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1431 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1481 | 1336 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1465 | 1326 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1474 | 1330 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1459 | 1312 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1476 | 1361 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1483 | 1331 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1461 | 1295 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1440 | 1298 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1293 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1346 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1303 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1282 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1301 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| LMArena Document | 1475 | Not measured | Only Claude Opus 4.8 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | MiniMax M2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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
MiniMax M2 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
MiniMax M2 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
MiniMax M2 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.
| Specification | Anthropic Claude Opus 4.8 | MiniMax M2 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Anthropic | MiniMax |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | May 27, 2026 | October 23, 2025 |
| Context window | 1M | 205K |
| Input $/Mtok | $5.00 | $0.255 |
| Output $/Mtok | $25.00 | $1.02 |
| Coding index | 65.0 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 6 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | $2.17 | $0.702 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Claude Opus 4.8 better than MiniMax M2 for coding?
Only Claude Opus 4.8 has a coding score, 65.0 on the Vibe Coding Index; MiniMax M2 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick MiniMax M2 for output tokens 24.5x cheaper ($1.02 vs $25.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.702 against $2.17).
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.8 or MiniMax M2?
Claude Opus 4.8 costs $5.00 per million input tokens and $25.00 per million output tokens; MiniMax M2 costs $0.255 and $1.02. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Claude Opus 4.8 costs $2.17 and MiniMax M2 $0.702.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Opus 4.8 or MiniMax M2?
Claude Opus 4.8, with 1M tokens against 205K.
How many benchmarks is the Claude Opus 4.8 vs MiniMax M2 comparison based on?
44 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Claude Opus 4.8's coding index rests on 6 independent benchmarks and MiniMax M2's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.