DeepSeek V3 vs MiniMax M2.1
DeepSeek V3 costs 1.3x less per output token than MiniMax M2.1 ($0.9594 vs $1.20 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 7 benchmarks have a result for both.
DeepSeek V3 or MiniMax M2.1: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick DeepSeek V3 for output tokens 1.3x cheaper ($0.9594 vs $1.20 per million) and work measured by Design Arena: websites or Design Arena: UI components, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 7
- DeepSeek V3 only
- 7
- MiniMax M2.1 only
- 27
- Like-for-like categories
- 1 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
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only MiniMax M2.1 has a AA Intelligence Index result, 20.9.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only MiniMax M2.1 has a GPQA Diamond result, 78.5%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only MiniMax M2.1 has a AIME result, 77.9%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only MiniMax M2.1 has a MMLU Pro result, 87.0%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
MiniMax M2.1
MiniMax M2.1 leads, 1201 against 1120.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
MiniMax M2.1
MiniMax M2.1 takes 205K tokens against 164K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
DeepSeek V3
DeepSeek V3 $0.0008, MiniMax M2.1 $0.0009 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only MiniMax M2.1 has the number, $0.59.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- DeepSeek V3 not benchmarked, MiniMax M2.1 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Web design, 12.9 points apart on average over 7 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Design Arena: SVG: DeepSeek V3 976 against MiniMax M2.1 1132, 19.5 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- DeepSeek V3 $0.9594 against MiniMax M2.1 $1.20 per million output tokens, 1.3x apart.
- Context window
- DeepSeek V3 takes 164K tokens, MiniMax M2.1 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 | DeepSeek V3 | Bars | MiniMax M2.1 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web design | 0 | 7 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 7 |
CodingDirectional onlySix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aider polyglot | 70.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 measured |
| SWE-bench Lite | 30.7% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 81.8% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 74.8% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 81.0% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 28.8% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Terminal-Bench | Not measured | 36.6% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 623.8 | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 31 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | Not measured | 20.9 | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 85.4% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 40 boards here | |||
ReasoningDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 78.5% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 83.0% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 23.2% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 71.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 measured |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 52.3% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | Not measured | 77.9% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 89.0% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | Not measured | 87.8% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| AA Math Index | Not measured | 82.7 | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 82.7% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 48.9% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 87.0% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 75.5% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | Not measured | 55.8% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 58.9% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 66.3% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | Not measured | 91.2% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 34.1% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 87.5% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index07
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1120 | 1201 | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1093 | 1223 | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1053 | 1134 | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1089 | 1206 | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1087 | 1165 | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1108 | 1190 | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Design Arena: SVG | 976 | 1132 | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 80.8% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| IFBench | Not measured | 69.9% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 67.7% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| DTBench | 62.7% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 measured |
| LMCA | 15.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 41 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | MiniMax M2.1 | 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
DeepSeek V3 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
DeepSeek V3 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
DeepSeek V3 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 | DeepSeek V3 | MiniMax M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | DeepSeek | MiniMax |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | December 26, 2024 | December 23, 2025 |
| Context window | 164K | 205K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.2887 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.9594 | $1.20 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $0.59 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is DeepSeek V3 better than MiniMax M2.1 for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick DeepSeek V3 for output tokens 1.3x cheaper ($0.9594 vs $1.20 per million) and work measured by Design Arena: websites or Design Arena: UI components, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V3 or MiniMax M2.1?
DeepSeek V3 costs $0.2887 per million input tokens and $0.9594 per million output tokens; MiniMax M2.1 costs $0.30 and $1.20. Cost per solved task is known for MiniMax M2.1 only.
Which has the bigger context window, DeepSeek V3 or MiniMax M2.1?
MiniMax M2.1, with 205K tokens against 164K.
How many benchmarks is the DeepSeek V3 vs MiniMax M2.1 comparison based on?
7 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. DeepSeek V3's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and MiniMax M2.1's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.