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Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs MiniMax M2

Updated October 21, 2026. 39 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.

Replace Claude Sonnet 4.5 Replace MiniMax M2
Claude Sonnet 4.5Anthropic
Coding
59.1
Overall
20.7
Output $/M
$15.00
39
MiniMax M2MiniMax
Coding
45.3
Overall
18.6
Output $/M
$1.02
0
vs boards won of 39 shared

Decision reading

Pick Claude Sonnet 4.5 for coding: it scores 59.1 on the Vibe Coding Index against 45.3 for MiniMax M2.

Pick MiniMax M2 when output tokens cost 14.7x less, or when a solved task costs $0.702 against $1.16.

Model AClaude Sonnet 4.5Anthropic59.1/1002 independent benchmarks$1.16 per solved taskModel BMiniMax M2MiniMax45.3/1002 independent benchmarks$0.702 per solved task
Shared results
39
Claude Sonnet 4.5 only
53
MiniMax M2 only
10
Like-for-like categories
8 of 9

Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results only one model has describe coverage, not superiority.

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
Claude Sonnet 4.5 59.1 from 2 benchmarks, MiniMax M2 45.3 from 2 benchmarks.
Widest category
Agentic work, 23.0 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
Widest single gap
LMArena Text: creative writing: Claude Sonnet 4.5 1442 against MiniMax M2 1286, 26.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Claude Sonnet 4.5 $15.00 against MiniMax M2 $1.02 per million output tokens, 14.7x apart.
Context window
Claude Sonnet 4.5 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.

Boards won, where both have a result
CategoryClaude Sonnet 4.5BarsMiniMax M2Ties
Coding60
Intelligence10
Agentic work10
Reasoning30
Math20
Knowledge40
Web design70
General150
All shared boards390
CodingLike-for-likeFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index60
Coding benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.5 and MiniMax M2
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.5MiniMax M2Leader
SWE-bench Verified74.8%61.0%Claude Sonnet 4.5
SWE-bench Multilingual67.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
LMArena WebDev13941297Claude Sonnet 4.5
AA Coding Index52.1Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)73.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)70.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)22.6%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run)Not measured82.6%Only MiniMax M2 measured
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)Not measured25.8%Only MiniMax M2 measured
Terminal-Bench46.5%30.0%Claude Sonnet 4.5
GSO-Bench14.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
WeirdML47.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
Cybench60.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
LMArena Text: coding14881371Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: software and IT14731373Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena WebDev: React1386Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
LMArena WebDev: HTML13991306Claude Sonnet 4.5
Neither model has a result on the other 21 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
Intelligence benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.5 and MiniMax M2
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.5MiniMax M2Leader
AA Intelligence Index20.718.6Claude Sonnet 4.5
Epoch Capabilities Index146.7Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
Agentic work benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.5 and MiniMax M2
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.5MiniMax M2Leader
AA Agentic Index15.8Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
Design Arena: agents building web apps1060Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps1050Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
Design Arena: agents building mobile apps1137Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
τ²-Bench TelecomNot measured86.8%Only MiniMax M2 measured
METR time horizons67.4%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
Remote Labor Index2.1%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
GDPval42.5%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
DeepResearch Bench52.6%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
OSWorld62.9%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
Vending-Bench 2$3,839$161Claude Sonnet 4.5
Neither model has a result on the other 28 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
Reasoning benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.5 and MiniMax M2
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.5MiniMax M2Leader
GPQA Diamond81.6%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)79.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)Not measured77.7%Only MiniMax M2 measured
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)Not measured13.7%Only MiniMax M2 measured
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)82.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
ARC-AGI63.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
ARC-AGI-213.6%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
SimpleBench54.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
Chess puzzles10.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
Mystery game puzzles17.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
EBR-bench2.4%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
VPCT39.8%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts14621357Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: expert14831338Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English14711376Claude Sonnet 4.5
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
Math benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.5 and MiniMax M2
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.5MiniMax M2Leader
AIME88.2%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
MGSM (Vals AI)94.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
AA Math IndexNot measured78.3Only MiniMax M2 measured
AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run)Not measured78.3%Only MiniMax M2 measured
OTIS Mock AIME77.8%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 323.9%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
FrontierMath, tier 42.4%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
ProofBench19.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
MATH level 597.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
LMArena Text: math14491351Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: mathematical work14621368Claude Sonnet 4.5
Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
Knowledge benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.5 and MiniMax M2
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.5MiniMax M2Leader
MMLU Pro87.4%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
LegalBench (Vals AI)84.1%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
CaseLaw (Vals AI)62.2%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)62.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
TaxEval (Vals AI)73.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
MortgageTax (Vals AI)64.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
MedQA (Vals AI)94.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
MedCode (Vals AI)44.1%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run)Not measured82.0%Only MiniMax M2 measured
SimpleQA Verified30.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
LMArena Text: science14481348Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare14441367Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: legal and government14511349Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: business and finance14401336Claude Sonnet 4.5
Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index70
Web design benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.5 and MiniMax M2
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.5MiniMax M2Leader
Design Arena: websites11901144Claude Sonnet 4.5
Design Arena: UI components11731136Claude Sonnet 4.5
Design Arena: game dev11661119Claude Sonnet 4.5
Design Arena: data viz11671140Claude Sonnet 4.5
Design Arena: 3D11581098Claude Sonnet 4.5
Design Arena: all code categories11831135Claude Sonnet 4.5
Design Arena: SVG11141098Claude Sonnet 4.5
Design Arena: ASCII art1204Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index150
General benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.5 and MiniMax M2
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.5MiniMax M2Leader
SAGE (Vals AI)36.1%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
MedScribe (Vals AI)84.5%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
IFBenchNot measured72.3%Only MiniMax M2 measured
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)Not measured64.3%Only MiniMax M2 measured
DTBench83.2%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
LMCA38.8%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
LMArena Text14381340Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: instruction following14591329Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: creative writing14421286Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: English14501364Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: non-English14251313Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: Chinese14601366Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: German14271357Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: Japanese1390Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
LMArena Text: Korean1402Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
LMArena Text: French14591336Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: Spanish14581326Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: Russian14371330Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: Polish14231312Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: multi-turn14651361Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: longer queries14751331Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: writing and language14421295Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Text: entertainment and media14281298Claude Sonnet 4.5
LMArena Document1450Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 22 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.5 and MiniMax M2
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.5MiniMax M2Leader
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

Claude Sonnet 4.5$0.011Fits in one request
MiniMax M2$0.0008Fits in one request

MiniMax M2 costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Claude Sonnet 4.5$0.195Fits in one request
MiniMax M2$0.016Fits in one request

MiniMax M2 costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Claude Sonnet 4.5$0.750Fits in one request
MiniMax M2$0.061Exceeds the context window

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.

Specifications of Claude Sonnet 4.5 and MiniMax M2
SpecificationAnthropic Claude Sonnet 4.5MiniMax M2
MakerAnthropicMiniMax
WeightsNo public weights listedOpen weights
ReleasedSeptember 29, 2025October 23, 2025
Context window1M205K
Input $/Mtok$3.00$0.255
Output $/Mtok$15.00$1.02
Coding index59.145.3
Independent measurements behind it22
Cost per solved task$1.16$0.702
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Claude Sonnet 4.5 better than MiniMax M2 for coding?

Pick Claude Sonnet 4.5 for coding: it scores 59.1 on the Vibe Coding Index against 45.3 for MiniMax M2. Pick MiniMax M2 when output tokens cost 14.7x less, or when a solved task costs $0.702 against $1.16.

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or MiniMax M2?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 costs $3.00 per million input tokens and $15.00 per million output tokens; MiniMax M2 costs $0.255 and $1.02. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Claude Sonnet 4.5 costs $1.16 and MiniMax M2 $0.702.

Which has the bigger context window, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or MiniMax M2?

Claude Sonnet 4.5, with 1M tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks is the Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs MiniMax M2 comparison based on?

39 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Claude Sonnet 4.5's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and MiniMax M2's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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