MiniMax M2.1 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
MiniMax M2.1 leads Nemotron 3.5 Lightning on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 20.9 to 12.9, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs 8.2x less per output token ($0.147 vs $1.20 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 8 benchmarks have a result for both.
MiniMax M2.1 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: which to pick
Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has a coding score, 22.6 on the Vibe Coding Index; MiniMax M2.1 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick MiniMax M2.1 for work measured by SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) or AA Intelligence Index, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 8
- MiniMax M2.1 only
- 26
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning only
- 12
- Like-for-like categories
- 5 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 Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
MiniMax M2.1
MiniMax M2.1 leads, 20.9 against 12.9.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has a AA Agentic Index result, 3.5.
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
No call
Only MiniMax M2.1 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1201.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning takes 262K tokens against 205K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
MiniMax M2.1 $0.0009, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning $0.0001 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
MiniMax M2.1 $0.59, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning $0.06.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- MiniMax M2.1 not benchmarked, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 22.6 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- General, 41.9 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- MedScribe (Vals AI): MiniMax M2.1 80.8% against Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 4.3%, 76.5 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- MiniMax M2.1 $1.20 against Nemotron 3.5 Lightning $0.147 per million output tokens, 8.2x apart.
- Context window
- MiniMax M2.1 takes 205K tokens, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 262K.
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 | MiniMax M2.1 | Bars | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 1 | 1 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 1 | 0 | ||
| General | 2 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 7 | 1 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index11
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2.1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 26.8 | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 81.8% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 74.8% | 52.8% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 3.0% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 10.9% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 29.5% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 81.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 32.1% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 28.8% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Terminal-Bench | 36.6% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 623.8 | 769.2 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
| Neither model has a result on the other 30 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2.1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 20.9 | 12.9 | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2.1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 3.5 | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 18.5% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.6% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.9% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 17.0% | Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 85.4% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 36 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2.1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 78.5% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 83.0% | 74.3% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 23.2% | 10.6% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 20 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2.1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 77.9% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | 89.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 87.8% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| AA Math Index | 82.7 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 82.7% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2.1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 87.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 75.5% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 55.8% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 58.9% | 54.2% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 66.3% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 91.2% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 34.1% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 87.5% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2.1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1201 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1220 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1134 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1206 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1164 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1190 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1131 | Not measured | 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 index20
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2.1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 80.8% | 4.3% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| IFBench | 69.9% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.1 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 67.7% | 60.3% | MiniMax M2.1 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 45 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2.1 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | 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
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 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 | MiniMax M2.1 | NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | MiniMax | NVIDIA |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | December 23, 2025 | August 11, 2026 |
| Context window | 205K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.30 | $0.0534 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.20 | $0.147 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | 22.6 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.59 | $0.06 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is MiniMax M2.1 better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning for coding?
Only Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has a coding score, 22.6 on the Vibe Coding Index; MiniMax M2.1 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick MiniMax M2.1 for work measured by SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) or AA Intelligence Index, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax M2.1 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
MiniMax M2.1 costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs $0.0534 and $0.147. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, MiniMax M2.1 costs $0.59 and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning $0.06.
Which has the bigger context window, MiniMax M2.1 or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning, with 262K tokens against 205K.
How many benchmarks is the MiniMax M2.1 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning comparison based on?
8 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. MiniMax M2.1's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.