GPT-4.1 vs MiniMax M2.1
MiniMax M2.1 leads GPT-4.1 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 20.9 to 12.7, and MiniMax M2.1 costs 6.7x less per output token ($1.20 vs $8.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 29 benchmarks have a result for both.
GPT-4.1 or MiniMax M2.1: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick GPT-4.1 for a lower cost per solved task ($0.37 against $0.59) and a larger context window (1.05M against 205K tokens).
- Shared results
- 29
- GPT-4.1 only
- 66
- MiniMax M2.1 only
- 5
- Like-for-like categories
- 8 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
MiniMax M2.1
MiniMax M2.1 leads, 20.9 against 12.7.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
MiniMax M2.1
MiniMax M2.1 leads, 78.5% against 65.4%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
MiniMax M2.1
MiniMax M2.1 leads, 77.9% against 39.6%.
Same board, both measured
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
MiniMax M2.1
MiniMax M2.1 leads, 87.0% against 80.5%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
MiniMax M2.1
MiniMax M2.1 leads, 1201 against 1038.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
GPT-4.1
GPT-4.1 takes 1.05M tokens against 205K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
MiniMax M2.1
GPT-4.1 $0.0060, MiniMax M2.1 $0.0009 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
GPT-4.1
GPT-4.1 $0.37, MiniMax M2.1 $0.59.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- GPT-4.1 not benchmarked, MiniMax M2.1 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 38.3 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- AA Math Index: GPT-4.1 34.7 against MiniMax M2.1 82.7, 48.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- GPT-4.1 $8.00 against MiniMax M2.1 $1.20 per million output tokens, 6.7x apart.
- Context window
- GPT-4.1 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 | GPT-4.1 | Bars | MiniMax M2.1 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 4 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 3 | ||
| Math | 0 | 5 | ||
| Knowledge | 5 | 2 | ||
| Web design | 0 | 6 | ||
| General | 1 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 6 | 23 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index04
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aider polyglot | 52.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified | 39.6% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal | 31.1% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 54.7% | 81.8% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 74.8% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 45.7% | 81.0% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 13.6% | 28.8% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Terminal-Bench | Not measured | 36.6% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| WeirdML | 39.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 558.1 | 623.8 | MiniMax M2.1 |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1390 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1391 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| SciCode | 4.6% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 30 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 12.7 | 20.9 | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 136.7 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 47.1% | 85.4% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) | 54.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| BrowseComp-Plus | 36.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 39 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 65.4% | 78.5% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 72.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 66.6% | 83.0% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 4.2% | 23.2% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 66.9% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| ARC-AGI | 5.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 0.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| SimpleBench | 27.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| Chess puzzles | 3.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1384 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1364 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1393 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1215 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1248 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 52.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 39.6% | 77.9% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | 87.2% | 89.0% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 87.7% | 87.8% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| AA Math Index | 34.7 | 82.7 | MiniMax M2.1 |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 34.7% | 82.7% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 38.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 6.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| MATH level 5 | 83.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1369 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1360 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index52
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 80.5% | 87.0% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 83.1% | 75.5% | GPT-4.1 |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 69.9% | 55.8% | GPT-4.1 |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 63.0% | 58.9% | GPT-4.1 |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 75.1% | 66.3% | GPT-4.1 |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 65.9% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 91.2% | 91.2% | GPT-4.1 |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 34.1% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 80.6% | 87.5% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| SimpleQA Verified | 31.1% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| GeoBench | 72.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1382 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1379 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1399 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1369 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 45.8% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| PRBench Finance | 34.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| PRBench Legal | 36.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index06
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1038 | 1201 | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Design Arena: UI components | 998 | 1220 | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1079 | 1134 | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1104 | 1206 | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Design Arena: 3D | 849 | 1164 | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1025 | 1190 | MiniMax M2.1 |
| 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 | GPT-4.1 | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 80.8% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| IFBench | 43.0% | 69.9% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 68.3% | 67.7% | GPT-4.1 |
| DTBench | 68.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMCA | 25.6% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 63.9% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1383 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1367 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1363 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Vision | 1210 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1392 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1370 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1382 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1381 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1319 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1338 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1382 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1376 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1377 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1389 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1397 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1385 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1371 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1365 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1209 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1226 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1218 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1196 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | 1207 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | 1208 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1210 | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| MultiChallenge | 39.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-4.1 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 | GPT-4.1 | 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 | OpenAI GPT-4.1 | MiniMax M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | OpenAI | MiniMax |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | April 14, 2025 | December 23, 2025 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 205K |
| Input $/Mtok | $2.00 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $8.00 | $1.20 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.37 | $0.59 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is GPT-4.1 better than MiniMax M2.1 for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick GPT-4.1 for a lower cost per solved task ($0.37 against $0.59) and a larger context window (1.05M against 205K tokens).
Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 or MiniMax M2.1?
GPT-4.1 costs $2.00 per million input tokens and $8.00 per million output tokens; MiniMax M2.1 costs $0.30 and $1.20. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, GPT-4.1 costs $0.37 and MiniMax M2.1 $0.59.
Which has the bigger context window, GPT-4.1 or MiniMax M2.1?
GPT-4.1, with 1.05M tokens against 205K.
How many benchmarks is the GPT-4.1 vs MiniMax M2.1 comparison based on?
29 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. GPT-4.1'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.