GLM 5.3 vs MiniMax M2.1
GLM 5.3 leads MiniMax M2.1 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 44.8 to 20.9, and MiniMax M2.1 costs 3.7x less per output token ($1.20 vs $4.40 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 20 benchmarks have a result for both.
GLM 5.3 or MiniMax M2.1: which to pick
Only GLM 5.3 has a coding score, 70.6 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 3.7x cheaper ($1.20 vs $4.40 per million) and work measured by LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) or MMLU Pro, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 20
- GLM 5.3 only
- 80
- MiniMax M2.1 only
- 14
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 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 GLM 5.3 has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
GLM 5.3
GLM 5.3 leads, 44.8 against 20.9.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only GLM 5.3 has a AA Agentic Index result, 53.1.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
GLM 5.3
GLM 5.3 leads, 88.1% 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 86.8%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
GLM 5.3
GLM 5.3 leads, 1295 against 1201.
Same board, both measured
General
Vals Index
No call
Only GLM 5.3 has a Vals Index result, 59.7%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
GLM 5.3
GLM 5.3 takes 1.05M tokens against 205K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
MiniMax M2.1
GLM 5.3 $0.0036, MiniMax M2.1 $0.0009 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
GLM 5.3
GLM 5.3 $0.36, MiniMax M2.1 $0.59.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- GLM 5.3 70.6 from 6 benchmarks, MiniMax M2.1 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Intelligence, 23.9 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- AA Intelligence Index: GLM 5.3 44.8 against MiniMax M2.1 20.9, 23.9 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- GLM 5.3 $4.40 against MiniMax M2.1 $1.20 per million output tokens, 3.7x apart.
- Context window
- GLM 5.3 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 | GLM 5.3 | Bars | MiniMax M2.1 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 1 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 3 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 3 | 1 | ||
| Web design | 7 | 0 | ||
| General | 2 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 18 | 2 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index21
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 82.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1621 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| AA Coding Index | 74.8 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 80.5% | 81.8% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 95.4% | 74.8% | GLM 5.3 |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 38.9% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 78.1% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 44.2% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 1.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 68.4% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 71.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | 20.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | 47.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 72.1% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 81.0% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| SciCode | 59.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 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 |
| FrontierCode | 40.1% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| FrontierSWE | 30.2% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| WeirdML | 75.4% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 1317.4 | 623.8 | GLM 5.3 |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1497 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1493 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1641 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1595 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 44.8 | 20.9 | GLM 5.3 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 156.0 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index17 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 53.1 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1194 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Design Arena: HTML slides | 1189 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1230 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LiveBench research | 73.2% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LiveBench browser | 0.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 35.9% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | 9.2% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 55.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 39.7% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 49.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 14.6% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 56.3% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | 5.7% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 85.4% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| APEX-Agents | 56.6% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $8,164 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 24 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 88.1% | 78.5% | GLM 5.3 |
| LiveBench reasoning | 85.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | 23.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 91.7% | 83.0% | GLM 5.3 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 42.3% | 23.2% | GLM 5.3 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 90.9% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Chess puzzles | 37.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 33.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1490 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1514 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1496 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 | 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 | 91.1% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 68.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 29.3% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| ProofBench | 49.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1495 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1497 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index31
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 86.8% | 87.0% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 84.8% | 75.5% | GLM 5.3 |
| 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) | 72.4% | 66.3% | GLM 5.3 |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | Not measured | 91.2% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 42.9% | 34.1% | GLM 5.3 |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 87.5% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 41.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1498 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1481 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1473 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1459 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 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 | GLM 5.3 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1295 | 1201 | GLM 5.3 |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1314 | 1220 | GLM 5.3 |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1311 | 1134 | GLM 5.3 |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1260 | 1206 | GLM 5.3 |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1332 | 1164 | GLM 5.3 |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1304 | 1190 | GLM 5.3 |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1294 | 1131 | GLM 5.3 |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1208 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LiveBench design | 77.3% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 59.7% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | 70.2% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 68.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 88.8% | 80.8% | GLM 5.3 |
| IFBench | Not measured | 69.9% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 79.7% | 67.7% | GLM 5.3 |
| DTBench | 87.7% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMCA | 55.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1474 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1479 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1458 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1482 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1459 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1532 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1488 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1460 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1460 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1503 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1462 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1469 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1466 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1472 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1483 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1469 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1447 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 21 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 | 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 | Z.ai GLM 5.3 | MiniMax M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Z.ai | MiniMax |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | August 18, 2026 | December 23, 2025 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 205K |
| Input $/Mtok | $1.40 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $4.40 | $1.20 |
| Coding index | 70.6 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 6 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.36 | $0.59 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is GLM 5.3 better than MiniMax M2.1 for coding?
Only GLM 5.3 has a coding score, 70.6 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 3.7x cheaper ($1.20 vs $4.40 per million) and work measured by LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) or MMLU Pro, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, GLM 5.3 or MiniMax M2.1?
GLM 5.3 costs $1.40 per million input tokens and $4.40 per million output tokens; MiniMax M2.1 costs $0.30 and $1.20. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, GLM 5.3 costs $0.36 and MiniMax M2.1 $0.59.
Which has the bigger context window, GLM 5.3 or MiniMax M2.1?
GLM 5.3, with 1.05M tokens against 205K.
How many benchmarks is the GLM 5.3 vs MiniMax M2.1 comparison based on?
20 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. GLM 5.3's coding index rests on 6 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.