GPT-6 Astra vs MiniMax M2.1
GPT-6 Astra leads MiniMax M2.1 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 52.7 to 20.9, and MiniMax M2.1 costs 41.7x less per output token ($1.20 vs $50.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 14 benchmarks have a result for both.
vs boards won of 14 shared
GPT-6 Astra or MiniMax M2.1: which to pick
Only GPT-6 Astra has a coding score, 85.1 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 41.7x cheaper ($1.20 vs $50.00 per million).
Model AGPT-6 AstraOpenAI85.1/1005 independent benchmarksNo cost per solved taskModel BMiniMax M2.1MiniMaxNot benchmarked1 independent benchmark$0.59 per solved task
- Shared results
- 14
- GPT-6 Astra only
- 115
- MiniMax M2.1 only
- 20
- 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 GPT-6 Astra has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
GPT-6 Astra
GPT-6 Astra leads, 52.7 against 20.9.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only GPT-6 Astra has a AA Agentic Index result, 51.0.
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
GPT-6 Astra
GPT-6 Astra leads, 1336 against 1201.
Same board, both measured
General
Vals Index
No call
Only GPT-6 Astra has a Vals Index result, 65.0%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
GPT-6 Astra
GPT-6 Astra takes 1.05M tokens against 205K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
MiniMax M2.1
GPT-6 Astra $0.035, 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
- GPT-6 Astra 85.1 from 5 benchmarks, MiniMax M2.1 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Coding, 77.6 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- ALE-Bench: GPT-6 Astra 2951.3 against MiniMax M2.1 623.8, 77.6 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- GPT-6 Astra $50.00 against MiniMax M2.1 $1.20 per million output tokens, 41.7x apart.
- Context window
- GPT-6 Astra 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-6 Astra | Bars | MiniMax M2.1 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 1 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 1 | 0 | ||
| Web design | 7 | 0 | ||
| General | 2 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 14 | 0 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index10
| Benchmark | GPT-6 Astra | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 93.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1774 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| AA Coding Index | 76.9 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| 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) | 59.6% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 89.6% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 67.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 5.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 100.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 87.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | 43.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | 27.6% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 41.1% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 81.0% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| SciCode | 56.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra 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 | 53.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| FrontierSWE | 65.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| GSO-Bench | 79.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| WeirdML | 93.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| MirrorCode | 46.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| ALE-Bench | 2951.3 | 623.8 | GPT-6 Astra |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1489 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1474 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1798 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1775 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1726 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| SciCode | 12.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| SWE-Bench Pro V2 | 96.9% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| SWE Atlas: Codebase QnA | 59.1% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| SWE Atlas: Refactoring | 59.1% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| SWE Atlas: Test Writing | 50.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | GPT-6 Astra | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 52.7 | 20.9 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 168.8 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index28 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GPT-6 Astra | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 51.0 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1374 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1357 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1312 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 1348 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1217 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 1378 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LiveBench research | 85.2% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LiveBench browser | 84.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 82.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | 56.9% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 53.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 20.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 39.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 7.1% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 71.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | 79.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | 62.9% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Vals Science Index | 65.1% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Time Horizon Index (Vals AI) | 90.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| CUA-bench (Vals AI) | 19.2% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Robo-bench (Vals AI) | 23.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 85.4% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| APEX-Agents | 64.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Remote Labor Index | 20.8% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| BALROG | 68.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| SpireClimb | 25.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $15,515 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | GPT-6 Astra | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 78.5% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | 92.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | 53.1% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 96.3% | 83.0% | GPT-6 Astra |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 54.7% | 23.2% | GPT-6 Astra |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 95.8% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| ARC-AGI | 98.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 95.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Chess puzzles | 74.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 84.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| EBR-bench | 76.2% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1463 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1489 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1464 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1297 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1337 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Scale run) | 60.6% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GPT-6 Astra | 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 | 100.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 93.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 97.6% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| ProofBench | 99.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1465 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1484 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| MathArena | 81.9% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | GPT-6 Astra | 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) | 48.5% | 34.1% | GPT-6 Astra |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 87.5% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 75.6% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1451 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1425 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1462 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1439 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 75.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| PRBench Finance | 47.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| PRBench Legal | 48.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index70
| Benchmark | GPT-6 Astra | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1336 | 1201 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1394 | 1220 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1480 | 1134 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1334 | 1206 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1500 | 1164 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1379 | 1190 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1430 | 1131 | GPT-6 Astra |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1353 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LiveBench design | 82.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | GPT-6 Astra | MiniMax M2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 65.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | 83.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 46.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 87.9% | 80.8% | GPT-6 Astra |
| IFBench | Not measured | 69.9% | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 80.7% | 67.7% | GPT-6 Astra |
| DTBench | 97.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMCA | 64.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Furniture assembly | 80.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text | 1441 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1455 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1420 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Vision | 1280 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1447 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1432 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1489 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1459 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1405 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1428 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1432 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1422 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1438 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1422 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1447 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1460 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1437 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1427 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1280 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1361 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1292 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1286 | Not measured | Only GPT-6 Astra measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GPT-6 Astra | 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-6 Astra$0.035Fits in one request
MiniMax M2.1$0.0009Fits in one request
MiniMax M2.1 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
GPT-6 Astra$0.650Fits in one request
MiniMax M2.1$0.019Fits in one request
MiniMax M2.1 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
GPT-6 Astra$2.50Fits in one request
MiniMax M2.1$0.072Exceeds the context window
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-6 Astra | MiniMax M2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | OpenAI | MiniMax |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | September 4, 2026 | December 23, 2025 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 205K |
| Input $/Mtok | $10.00 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $50.00 | $1.20 |
| Coding index | 85.1 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 5 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $0.59 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is GPT-6 Astra better than MiniMax M2.1 for coding?
Only GPT-6 Astra has a coding score, 85.1 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 41.7x cheaper ($1.20 vs $50.00 per million).
Which is cheaper, GPT-6 Astra or MiniMax M2.1?
GPT-6 Astra costs $10.00 per million input tokens and $50.00 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, GPT-6 Astra or MiniMax M2.1?
GPT-6 Astra, with 1.05M tokens against 205K.
How many benchmarks is the GPT-6 Astra vs MiniMax M2.1 comparison based on?
14 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. GPT-6 Astra's coding index rests on 5 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.