Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs MiniMax M2.1
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads MiniMax M2.1 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 22.2 to 20.9, and MiniMax M2.1 costs 2.1x less per output token ($1.20 vs $2.50 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 14 benchmarks have a result for both.
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or MiniMax M2.1: which to pick
Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has a coding score, 49.0 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 2.1x cheaper ($1.20 vs $2.50 per million) and work measured by LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) or Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 14
- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite only
- 71
- MiniMax M2.1 only
- 20
- Like-for-like categories
- 5 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 Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads, 22.2 against 20.9.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has a AA Agentic Index result, 14.3.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads, 83.8% against 78.5%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
No call
Only MiniMax M2.1 has a AIME result, 77.9%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
MiniMax M2.1
MiniMax M2.1 leads, 87.0% against 85.8%.
Same board, both measured
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
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite takes 1.05M tokens against 205K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
MiniMax M2.1
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite $0.0015, MiniMax M2.1 $0.0009 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite $0.41, MiniMax M2.1 $0.59.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 49.0 from 3 benchmarks, MiniMax M2.1 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- General, 9.1 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- MedScribe (Vals AI): Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 70.9% against MiniMax M2.1 80.8%, 9.9 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite $2.50 against MiniMax M2.1 $1.20 per million output tokens, 2.1x apart.
- Context window
- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite takes 1.05M 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 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Bars | MiniMax M2.1 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 1 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 1 | ||
| Knowledge | 4 | 1 | ||
| General | 1 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 10 | 4 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index21
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1435 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| AA Coding Index | 49.3 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 79.0% | 81.8% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 75.0% | 74.8% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 37.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 6.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 50.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 59.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 81.0% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| SciCode | 41.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 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 |
| WeirdML | 39.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| ALE-Bench | 765.3 | 623.8 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1453 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1451 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1408 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1448 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| SciCode | 6.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 22.2 | 20.9 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 144.9 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 14.3 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 47.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 7.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 13.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 43.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 85.4% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| APEX-Agents | 29.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 34 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index21
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 83.8% | 78.5% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 83.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 83.8% | 83.0% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 18.8% | 23.2% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 83.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| ARC-AGI | 53.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 10.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Chess puzzles | 21.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 19.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1441 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1434 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1440 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1284 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1291 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | 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 | 71.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 26.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 0.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| ProofBench | 13.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1434 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1433 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index41
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 85.8% | 87.0% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 84.1% | 75.5% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | Not measured | 55.8% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 60.7% | 58.9% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 72.6% | 66.3% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | Not measured | 91.2% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 43.5% | 34.1% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 87.5% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1451 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1438 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1431 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1423 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 53.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | 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 | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 51.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 47.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 70.9% | 80.8% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| IFBench | Not measured | 69.9% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 76.0% | 67.7% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| DTBench | 83.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMCA | 37.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text | 1435 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1419 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1421 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Vision | 1269 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1438 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1427 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1468 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1454 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1426 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1407 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1451 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1441 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1443 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1437 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1445 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1435 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1428 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1414 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1269 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1311 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1280 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1287 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1260 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | 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
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 | Google Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | MiniMax M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | MiniMax | |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | July 21, 2026 | December 23, 2025 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 205K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.30 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.50 | $1.20 |
| Coding index | 49.0 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 3 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.41 | $0.59 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite better than MiniMax M2.1 for coding?
Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has a coding score, 49.0 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 2.1x cheaper ($1.20 vs $2.50 per million) and work measured by LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) or Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or MiniMax M2.1?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; MiniMax M2.1 costs $0.30 and $1.20. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs $0.41 and MiniMax M2.1 $0.59.
Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or MiniMax M2.1?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite, with 1.05M tokens against 205K.
How many benchmarks is the Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs MiniMax M2.1 comparison based on?
14 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite's coding index rests on 3 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.