Grok 4.20 vs MiniMax M2.5

MiniMax M2.5 leads Grok 4.20 on coding, 37.2 to 33.3 on the Vibe Coding Index, and MiniMax M2.5 costs 2.1x less per output token ($1.20 vs $2.50 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 33 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Grok 4.20 Replace MiniMax M2.5

Grok 4.20xAI

Coding: 33.3
Overall: 41.0
Output $/M: $2.50

MiniMax M2.5MiniMax

Coding: 37.2
Overall: 37.3
Output $/M: $1.20

vs boards won of 33 shared

Grok 4.20 or MiniMax M2.5: which to pick

Pick MiniMax M2.5 for coding: it scores 37.2 on the Vibe Coding Index against 33.3 for Grok 4.20.

Pick Grok 4.20 for a larger context window (2M against 205K tokens) and work measured by LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) or Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run), where it leads.

Model AGrok 4.20xAI33.3/1002 independent benchmarks$0.72 per solved task Model BMiniMax M2.5MiniMax37.2/1003 independent benchmarks$0.62 per solved task

332238

Shared results: 33
Grok 4.20 only: 22
MiniMax M2.5 only: 38
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
MiniMax M2.5
MiniMax M2.5 scores 37.2 against 33.3.
2 and 3 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Grok 4.20
Grok 4.20 leads, 25.7 against 22.8.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Grok 4.20
Grok 4.20 leads, 88.6% against 82.1%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
Grok 4.20
Grok 4.20 leads, 96.5% against 88.8%.
Same board, both measured
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Grok 4.20
Grok 4.20 leads, 86.3% against 80.1%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Grok 4.20
Grok 4.20 leads, 1229 against 1222.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Grok 4.20
Grok 4.20 takes 2M tokens against 205K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
MiniMax M2.5
Grok 4.20 $0.0025, MiniMax M2.5 $0.0009 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
MiniMax M2.5
Grok 4.20 $0.72, MiniMax M2.5 $0.62.
Published attempt cost and pass rate

At a glance

Coding index: Grok 4.20 33.3 from 2 benchmarks, MiniMax M2.5 37.2 from 3 benchmarks.
Widest category: Reasoning, 22.1 points apart on average over 6 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap: ARC-AGI-2: Grok 4.20 65.1% against MiniMax M2.5 4.9%, 60.3 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price: Grok 4.20 $2.50 against MiniMax M2.5 $1.20 per million output tokens, 2.1x apart.
Context window: Grok 4.20 takes 2M tokens, MiniMax M2.5 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	Grok 4.20	MiniMax M2.5
Coding	3	2
Intelligence	2	0
Agentic work	1	1
Reasoning	6	0
Math	1	0
Knowledge	5	1
Web design	7	0
General	3	1
All shared boards	28	5

CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index32

Coding benchmarks for Grok 4.20 and MiniMax M2.5
Benchmark	Grok 4.20	MiniMax M2.5	Leader
SWE-bench Verified	Not measured	75.8%	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
SWE-bench Multilingual	Not measured	68.3%	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena WebDev	Not measured	1386	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)	84.3%	79.2%	Grok 4.20
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)	72.2%	74.2%	MiniMax M2.5
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)	4.1%	14.8%	MiniMax M2.5
Code migration (Vals AI)	0.3%	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)	44.2%	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)	37.9%	34.8%	Grok 4.20
Terminal-Bench	57.3%	42.7%	Grok 4.20
WeirdML	52.3%	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
ALE-Bench	Not measured	618.2	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: coding	Not measured	1380	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: software and IT	Not measured	1383	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena WebDev: React	Not measured	1374	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena WebDev: HTML	Not measured	1414	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
SWE Atlas: Codebase QnA	Not measured	10.3%	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
SWE Atlas: Refactoring	Not measured	19.5%	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
SWE Atlas: Test Writing	Not measured	18.6%	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 24 boards here

IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20

Intelligence benchmarks for Grok 4.20 and MiniMax M2.5
Benchmark	Grok 4.20	MiniMax M2.5	Leader
AA Intelligence Index	25.7	22.8	Grok 4.20
Epoch Capabilities Index	152.1	146.6	Grok 4.20

Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11

Agentic work benchmarks for Grok 4.20 and MiniMax M2.5
Benchmark	Grok 4.20	MiniMax M2.5	Leader
Design Arena: agents building web apps	1144	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps	1054	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
Design Arena: agents building mobile apps	1090	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
Design Arena: agents building Android apps	1045	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
Design Arena: agents building Godot games	1089	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
Design Arena: HTML slides	1180	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
Finance Agent (Vals AI)	28.5%	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)	7.0%	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)	13.9%	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)	11.7%	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
τ²-Bench Telecom	93.0%	95.3%	MiniMax M2.5
Vending-Bench 2	$4,663	-$23	Grok 4.20
Neither model has a result on the other 30 boards here

ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index60

Reasoning benchmarks for Grok 4.20 and MiniMax M2.5
Benchmark	Grok 4.20	MiniMax M2.5	Leader
GPQA Diamond	88.6%	82.1%	Grok 4.20
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)	83.5%	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)	91.1%	84.8%	Grok 4.20
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)	34.5%	20.5%	Grok 4.20
ARC-AGI	89.5%	63.7%	Grok 4.20
ARC-AGI-2	65.1%	4.9%	Grok 4.20
LMArena Text: hard prompts	Not measured	1372	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: expert	Not measured	1378	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English	Not measured	1384	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
Kagi LLM Benchmark	75.0%	55.2%	Grok 4.20
Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here

MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10

Math benchmarks for Grok 4.20 and MiniMax M2.5
Benchmark	Grok 4.20	MiniMax M2.5	Leader
AIME	96.5%	88.8%	Grok 4.20
ProofBench	Not measured	4.0%	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: math	Not measured	1378	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: mathematical work	Not measured	1378	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here

KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index51

Knowledge benchmarks for Grok 4.20 and MiniMax M2.5
Benchmark	Grok 4.20	MiniMax M2.5	Leader
MMLU Pro	86.3%	80.1%	Grok 4.20
LegalBench (Vals AI)	77.7%	80.0%	MiniMax M2.5
CaseLaw (Vals AI)	54.4%	53.5%	Grok 4.20
CorpFin (Vals AI)	63.7%	59.6%	Grok 4.20
TaxEval (Vals AI)	74.1%	68.2%	Grok 4.20
MortgageTax (Vals AI)	45.4%	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
MedQA (Vals AI)	94.5%	92.5%	Grok 4.20
MedCode (Vals AI)	32.2%	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
LMArena Text: science	Not measured	1369	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare	Not measured	1357	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: legal and government	Not measured	1366	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: business and finance	Not measured	1356	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here

Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index70

Web design benchmarks for Grok 4.20 and MiniMax M2.5
Benchmark	Grok 4.20	MiniMax M2.5	Leader
Design Arena: websites	1229	1222	Grok 4.20
Design Arena: UI components	1197	1170	Grok 4.20
Design Arena: game dev	1193	1176	Grok 4.20
Design Arena: data viz	1217	1172	Grok 4.20
Design Arena: 3D	1193	1170	Grok 4.20
Design Arena: all code categories	1221	1207	Grok 4.20
Design Arena: SVG	1165	1150	Grok 4.20
Design Arena: ASCII art	1175	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here

GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index31

General benchmarks for Grok 4.20 and MiniMax M2.5
Benchmark	Grok 4.20	MiniMax M2.5	Leader
SAGE (Vals AI)	38.2%	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
MedScribe (Vals AI)	63.4%	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
Vals Multimodal Index	39.1%	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
IFBench	81.2%	71.6%	Grok 4.20
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)	69.0%	73.3%	MiniMax M2.5
DTBench	90.1%	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
LMCA	38.7%	Not measured	Only Grok 4.20 measured
CL-bench	22.2%	11.4%	Grok 4.20
CL-bench Life	11.9%	6.3%	Grok 4.20
LMArena Text	Not measured	1359	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: instruction following	Not measured	1353	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: creative writing	Not measured	1331	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: English	Not measured	1380	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: non-English	Not measured	1338	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: Chinese	Not measured	1393	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: German	Not measured	1361	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: Japanese	Not measured	1171	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: Korean	Not measured	1233	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: French	Not measured	1363	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: Spanish	Not measured	1353	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: Russian	Not measured	1359	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: Polish	Not measured	1334	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: multi-turn	Not measured	1364	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: longer queries	Not measured	1366	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: writing and language	Not measured	1345	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
LMArena Text: entertainment and media	Not measured	1329	Only MiniMax M2.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 22 boards here

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

Image generation benchmarks for Grok 4.20 and MiniMax M2.5
Benchmark	Grok 4.20	MiniMax M2.5	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

Grok 4.20$0.0025Fits in one request

MiniMax M2.5$0.0009Fits in one request

MiniMax M2.5 costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Grok 4.20$0.070Fits in one request

MiniMax M2.5$0.019Fits in one request

MiniMax M2.5 costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Grok 4.20$0.275Fits in one request

MiniMax M2.5$0.072Exceeds the context window

MiniMax M2.5 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 Grok 4.20 and MiniMax M2.5
Specification	SpaceXAI Grok 4.20	MiniMax M2.5
Maker	xAI	MiniMax
Weights	No public weights listed	Open weights
Released	March 31, 2026	February 12, 2026
Context window	2M	205K
Input $/Mtok	$1.25	$0.30
Output $/Mtok	$2.50	$1.20
Coding index	33.3	37.2
Independent measurements behind it	2	3
Cost per solved task	$0.72	$0.62
Source	OpenRouter listing	OpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Grok 4.20 better than MiniMax M2.5 for coding?

Pick MiniMax M2.5 for coding: it scores 37.2 on the Vibe Coding Index against 33.3 for Grok 4.20. Pick Grok 4.20 for a larger context window (2M against 205K tokens) and work measured by LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) or Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run), where it leads.

Which is cheaper, Grok 4.20 or MiniMax M2.5?

Grok 4.20 costs $1.25 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; MiniMax M2.5 costs $0.30 and $1.20. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Grok 4.20 costs $0.72 and MiniMax M2.5 $0.62.

Which has the bigger context window, Grok 4.20 or MiniMax M2.5?

Grok 4.20, with 2M tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks is the Grok 4.20 vs MiniMax M2.5 comparison based on?

33 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Grok 4.20's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and MiniMax M2.5's on 3. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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Grok 4.20 or MiniMax M2.5: 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

Compare next