GPT-5 Nano vs MiniMax M2.1

MiniMax M2.1 leads GPT-5 Nano on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 20.9 to 13.0, and GPT-5 Nano costs 3.0x less per output token ($0.40 vs $1.20 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 30 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace GPT-5 Nano Replace MiniMax M2.1

GPT-5 NanoOpenAI

Coding: No data
Overall: 35.6
Output $/M: $0.40

MiniMax M2.1MiniMax

Coding: No data
Overall: No data
Output $/M: $1.20

vs boards won of 30 shared

GPT-5 Nano or MiniMax M2.1: which to pick

Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.

Pick GPT-5 Nano for output tokens 3.0x cheaper ($0.40 vs $1.20 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.109 against $0.59).

Model AGPT-5 NanoOpenAINot benchmarkedNo coding benchmark$0.109 per solved task Model BMiniMax M2.1MiniMaxNot benchmarked1 independent benchmark$0.59 per solved task

30584

Shared results: 30
GPT-5 Nano only: 58
MiniMax M2.1 only: 4
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 13.0.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
MiniMax M2.1
MiniMax M2.1 leads, 78.5% against 63.4%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
GPT-5 Nano
GPT-5 Nano leads, 81.2% against 77.9%.
Same board, both measured
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
MiniMax M2.1
MiniMax M2.1 leads, 87.0% against 76.1%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
MiniMax M2.1
MiniMax M2.1 leads, 1201 against 1101.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
GPT-5 Nano
GPT-5 Nano takes 400K tokens against 205K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
GPT-5 Nano
GPT-5 Nano $0.0003, MiniMax M2.1 $0.0009 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
GPT-5 Nano
GPT-5 Nano $0.109, MiniMax M2.1 $0.59.
Published attempt cost and pass rate

At a glance

Coding index: GPT-5 Nano not benchmarked, MiniMax M2.1 not benchmarked.
Widest category: Agentic work, 48.8 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
Widest single gap: τ²-Bench Telecom: GPT-5 Nano 36.5% against MiniMax M2.1 85.4%, 48.8 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price: GPT-5 Nano $0.40 against MiniMax M2.1 $1.20 per million output tokens, 3.0x apart.
Context window: GPT-5 Nano takes 400K 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.

Boards won, where both have a result
Category	GPT-5 Nano	MiniMax M2.1
Coding	0	4
Intelligence	0	1
Agentic work	0	1
Reasoning	0	3
Math	5	0
Knowledge	2	5
Web design	0	6
General	0	3
All shared boards	7	23

CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index04

Coding benchmarks for GPT-5 Nano and MiniMax M2.1
Benchmark	GPT-5 Nano	MiniMax M2.1	Leader
SWE-bench Verified	34.8%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)	70.2%	81.8%	MiniMax M2.1
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)	Not measured	74.8%	Only MiniMax M2.1 measured
LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run)	78.9%	81.0%	MiniMax M2.1
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)	17.4%	28.8%	MiniMax M2.1
Terminal-Bench	21.8%	36.6%	MiniMax M2.1
WeirdML	38.1%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
ALE-Bench	Not measured	623.8	Only MiniMax M2.1 measured
LMArena Text: coding	1351	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: software and IT	1345	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
Neither model has a result on the other 33 boards here

IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01

Intelligence benchmarks for GPT-5 Nano and MiniMax M2.1
Benchmark	GPT-5 Nano	MiniMax M2.1	Leader
AA Intelligence Index	13.0	20.9	MiniMax M2.1
Epoch Capabilities Index	139.2	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured

Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01

Agentic work benchmarks for GPT-5 Nano and MiniMax M2.1
Benchmark	GPT-5 Nano	MiniMax M2.1	Leader
τ²-Bench Telecom	36.5%	85.4%	MiniMax M2.1
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL)	51.4%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
Neither model has a result on the other 40 boards here

ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03

Reasoning benchmarks for GPT-5 Nano and MiniMax M2.1
Benchmark	GPT-5 Nano	MiniMax M2.1	Leader
GPQA Diamond	63.4%	78.5%	MiniMax M2.1
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)	70.9%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)	67.6%	83.0%	MiniMax M2.1
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)	9.5%	23.2%	MiniMax M2.1
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)	69.4%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
ARC-AGI	20.7%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
ARC-AGI-2	2.6%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
Chess puzzles	22.0%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
Mystery game puzzles	9.0%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
VPCT	37.2%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts	1328	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: expert	1321	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English	1338	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Vision: diagrams	1141	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Vision: homework	1157	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
Kagi LLM Benchmark	62.2%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here

MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index50

Math benchmarks for GPT-5 Nano and MiniMax M2.1
Benchmark	GPT-5 Nano	MiniMax M2.1	Leader
AIME	81.2%	77.9%	GPT-5 Nano
MATH 500 (Vals AI)	93.8%	89.0%	GPT-5 Nano
MGSM (Vals AI)	89.3%	87.8%	GPT-5 Nano
AA Math Index	83.7	82.7	GPT-5 Nano
AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run)	83.7%	82.7%	GPT-5 Nano
OTIS Mock AIME	81.1%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3	20.0%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
FrontierMath, tier 4	2.4%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
ProofBench	12.0%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
MATH level 5	95.2%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: math	1317	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: mathematical work	1326	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
MathArena	12.8%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here

KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index25

Knowledge benchmarks for GPT-5 Nano and MiniMax M2.1
Benchmark	GPT-5 Nano	MiniMax M2.1	Leader
MMLU Pro	76.1%	87.0%	MiniMax M2.1
LegalBench (Vals AI)	50.1%	75.5%	MiniMax M2.1
CaseLaw (Vals AI)	52.6%	55.8%	MiniMax M2.1
CorpFin (Vals AI)	Not measured	58.9%	Only MiniMax M2.1 measured
TaxEval (Vals AI)	67.4%	66.3%	GPT-5 Nano
MortgageTax (Vals AI)	53.6%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
MedQA (Vals AI)	93.3%	91.2%	GPT-5 Nano
MedCode (Vals AI)	30.4%	34.1%	MiniMax M2.1
MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run)	78.0%	87.5%	MiniMax M2.1
SimpleQA Verified	11.7%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: science	1318	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare	1335	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: legal and government	1298	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: business and finance	1311	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here

Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index06

Web design benchmarks for GPT-5 Nano and MiniMax M2.1
Benchmark	GPT-5 Nano	MiniMax M2.1	Leader
Design Arena: websites	1101	1201	MiniMax M2.1
Design Arena: UI components	1064	1220	MiniMax M2.1
Design Arena: game dev	1044	1134	MiniMax M2.1
Design Arena: data viz	1056	1206	MiniMax M2.1
Design Arena: 3D	965	1164	MiniMax M2.1
Design Arena: all code categories	1084	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 index03

General benchmarks for GPT-5 Nano and MiniMax M2.1
Benchmark	GPT-5 Nano	MiniMax M2.1	Leader
SAGE (Vals AI)	30.4%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
MedScribe (Vals AI)	72.9%	80.8%	MiniMax M2.1
IFBench	67.6%	69.9%	MiniMax M2.1
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)	45.0%	67.7%	MiniMax M2.1
DTBench	62.7%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMCA	7.9%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
Fiction.LiveBench	44.4%	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text	1320	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: instruction following	1306	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: creative writing	1249	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Vision	1159	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: English	1321	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: non-English	1313	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: Chinese	1356	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: German	1327	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: Japanese	1227	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: Korean	1269	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: Spanish	1360	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: Russian	1296	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: Polish	1314	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: multi-turn	1311	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: longer queries	1312	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: writing and language	1283	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Text: entertainment and media	1268	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Vision: English	1170	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Vision: Chinese	1176	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Vision: reading text	1152	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
LMArena Vision: humor	1110	Not measured	Only GPT-5 Nano measured
Neither model has a result on the other 20 boards here

Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared

Image generation benchmarks for GPT-5 Nano and MiniMax M2.1
Benchmark	GPT-5 Nano	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

GPT-5 Nano$0.0003Fits in one request

MiniMax M2.1$0.0009Fits in one request

GPT-5 Nano costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

GPT-5 Nano$0.0037Fits in one request

MiniMax M2.1$0.019Fits in one request

GPT-5 Nano costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

GPT-5 Nano$0.014Fits in one request

MiniMax M2.1$0.072Exceeds the context window

GPT-5 Nano 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.

Specifications of GPT-5 Nano and MiniMax M2.1
Specification	OpenAI GPT-5 Nano	MiniMax M2.1
Maker	OpenAI	MiniMax
Weights	No public weights listed	Open weights
Released	August 7, 2025	December 23, 2025
Context window	400K	205K
Input $/Mtok	$0.05	$0.30
Output $/Mtok	$0.40	$1.20
Coding index	Not benchmarked	Not benchmarked
Independent measurements behind it	0	1
Cost per solved task	$0.109	$0.59
Source	OpenRouter listing	OpenRouter listing

Questions

Is GPT-5 Nano better than MiniMax M2.1 for coding?

Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick GPT-5 Nano for output tokens 3.0x cheaper ($0.40 vs $1.20 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.109 against $0.59).

Which is cheaper, GPT-5 Nano or MiniMax M2.1?

GPT-5 Nano costs $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.40 per million output tokens; MiniMax M2.1 costs $0.30 and $1.20. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, GPT-5 Nano costs $0.109 and MiniMax M2.1 $0.59.

Which has the bigger context window, GPT-5 Nano or MiniMax M2.1?

GPT-5 Nano, with 400K tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks is the GPT-5 Nano vs MiniMax M2.1 comparison based on?

30 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. GPT-5 Nano'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.

GPT-5 Nano or MiniMax M2.1: which to pick

Which one for your work

Coding

Intelligence

Reasoning

Math

Knowledge

Web design

Long documents

Everyday cost

Cost per solved task

At a glance

Benchmark by benchmark

What each workload costs

Chat turn

Repository review

Agent loop

Specification differences

Questions

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