Ember-1 vs MiniMax M2.1
MiniMax M2.1 costs 12.5x less per output token than Ember-1 ($1.20 vs $15.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; no benchmark has tested both models yet.
- Coding
- 52.6
- Overall
- No data
- Output $/M
- $15.00
- Coding
- No data
- Overall
- No data
- Output $/M
- $1.20
Ember-1 or MiniMax M2.1: which to pick
Only Ember-1 has a coding score, 52.6 on the Vibe Coding Index; MiniMax M2.1 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick MiniMax M2.1 for output tokens 12.5x cheaper ($1.20 vs $15.00 per million).
No benchmark has tested both yet. Ember-1 has results on Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI), Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) and Code migration (Vals AI); MiniMax M2.1 on LiveCodeBench (Vals AI), SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) and LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run). Compare them on price and context instead.
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 Ember-1 has a coding score, so no call is made.
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
No call
Only MiniMax M2.1 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1201.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Ember-1
Ember-1 takes 1.05M tokens against 205K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
MiniMax M2.1
Ember-1 $0.011, 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
- Ember-1 52.6 from 2 benchmarks, MiniMax M2.1 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- None yet: no category has been tested on both models.
- Widest single gap
- None yet: no benchmark has tested both models.
- Output price
- Ember-1 $15.00 against MiniMax M2.1 $1.20 per million output tokens, 12.5x apart.
- Context window
- Ember-1 takes 1.05M tokens, MiniMax M2.1 205K.
Benchmark by benchmark
Every board either model has a result on, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale. Only one model is measured on each, so no row names a leader.
CodingDirectional onlySix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index11 boards measured
| Benchmark | Ember-1 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 20.7% | Not measured | Only Ember-1 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 83.9% | Not measured | Only Ember-1 measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 32.5% | Not measured | Only Ember-1 measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 46.3% | Not measured | Only Ember-1 measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 69.5% | Not measured | Only Ember-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 32 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board measured
| Benchmark | Ember-1 | 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 index8 boards measured
| Benchmark | Ember-1 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 51.8% | Not measured | Only Ember-1 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 31.1% | Not measured | Only Ember-1 measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 44.7% | Not measured | Only Ember-1 measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 63.4% | Not measured | Only Ember-1 measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | 67.0% | Not measured | Only Ember-1 measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | 5.7% | Not measured | Only Ember-1 measured |
| Vals Science Index | 31.8% | Not measured | Only Ember-1 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 85.4% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 34 boards here | |||
ReasoningDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards measured
| Benchmark | Ember-1 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 78.5% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | 22.5% | Not measured | Only Ember-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 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards measured
| Benchmark | Ember-1 | 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 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards measured
| Benchmark | Ember-1 | 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 12 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards measured
| Benchmark | Ember-1 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 1201 | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1220 | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 1134 | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1206 | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | Not measured | 1164 | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 1190 | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | Not measured | 1131 | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards measured
| Benchmark | Ember-1 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 66.2% | Not measured | Only Ember-1 measured |
| 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 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 44 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 M2.1 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
MiniMax M2.1 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
MiniMax M2.1 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 | Fireworks Ember-1 | MiniMax M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Fireworks | MiniMax |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | September 24, 2026 | December 23, 2025 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 205K |
| Input $/Mtok | $3.00 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $15.00 | $1.20 |
| Coding index | 52.6 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $0.59 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Ember-1 better than MiniMax M2.1 for coding?
Only Ember-1 has a coding score, 52.6 on the Vibe Coding Index; MiniMax M2.1 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick MiniMax M2.1 for output tokens 12.5x cheaper ($1.20 vs $15.00 per million).
Which is cheaper, Ember-1 or MiniMax M2.1?
Ember-1 costs $3.00 per million input tokens and $15.00 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, Ember-1 or MiniMax M2.1?
Ember-1, with 1.05M tokens against 205K.
Has any benchmark tested both Ember-1 and MiniMax M2.1?
No benchmark has tested both yet. Ember-1 has results on Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI), Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) and Code migration (Vals AI); MiniMax M2.1 on LiveCodeBench (Vals AI), SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) and LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run). Compare them on price and context instead. Data as of October 22, 2026.