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MiniMax M2.1 vs Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B

MiniMax M2.1 leads Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 20.9 to 11.9, and MiniMax M2.1 costs 1.3x less per output token ($1.20 vs $1.50 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 18 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace MiniMax M2.1 Replace Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B
MiniMax M2.1MiniMax
Coding
No data
Overall
No data
Output $/M
$1.20
18
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35BQwen
Coding
No data
Overall
No data
Output $/M
$1.50
0
vs boards won of 18 shared

MiniMax M2.1 or Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B: which to pick

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

Pick MiniMax M2.1 for output tokens 1.3x cheaper ($1.20 vs $1.50 per million).

Model AMiniMax M2.1MiniMaxNot benchmarked1 independent benchmark$0.59 per solved taskModel BQwen3 Coder 480B A35BQwenNot benchmarked1 independent benchmarkNo cost per solved task
Shared results
18
MiniMax M2.1 only
16
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B only
35
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.

At a glance

Coding index
MiniMax M2.1 not benchmarked, Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B not benchmarked.
Widest category
Math, 43.4 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap
AA Math Index: MiniMax M2.1 82.7 against Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B 39.3, 43.4 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
MiniMax M2.1 $1.20 against Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B $1.50 per million output tokens, 1.3x apart.
Context window
MiniMax M2.1 takes 205K tokens, Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B 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.

Boards won, where both have a result
CategoryMiniMax M2.1BarsQwen3 Coder 480B A35BTies
Coding40
Intelligence10
Agentic work10
Reasoning20
Math20
Knowledge10
Web design50
General20
All shared boards180
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index40
Coding benchmarks for MiniMax M2.1 and Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B
BenchmarkMiniMax M2.1Qwen3 Coder 480B A35BLeader
SWE-bench VerifiedNot measured69.6%Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena WebDevNot measured1275Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)81.8%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M2.1 measured
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)74.8%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M2.1 measured
LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run)81.0%58.5%MiniMax M2.1
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)28.8%18.9%MiniMax M2.1
Terminal-Bench36.6%27.2%MiniMax M2.1
GSO-BenchNot measured4.9%Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
WeirdMLNot measured41.2%Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
ALE-Bench623.8461.4MiniMax M2.1
LMArena Text: codingNot measured1412Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: software and ITNot measured1393Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena WebDev: ReactNot measured1257Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena WebDev: HTMLNot measured1287Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
Neither model has a result on the other 25 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
Intelligence benchmarks for MiniMax M2.1 and Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B
BenchmarkMiniMax M2.1Qwen3 Coder 480B A35BLeader
AA Intelligence Index20.911.9MiniMax M2.1
Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
Agentic work benchmarks for MiniMax M2.1 and Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B
BenchmarkMiniMax M2.1Qwen3 Coder 480B A35BLeader
τ²-Bench Telecom85.4%43.6%MiniMax M2.1
Neither model has a result on the other 40 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
Reasoning benchmarks for MiniMax M2.1 and Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B
BenchmarkMiniMax M2.1Qwen3 Coder 480B A35BLeader
GPQA Diamond78.5%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M2.1 measured
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)83.0%61.8%MiniMax M2.1
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)23.2%4.5%MiniMax M2.1
LMArena Text: hard promptsNot measured1372Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: expertNot measured1338Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts in EnglishNot measured1380Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
Kagi LLM BenchmarkNot measured49.5%Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
Math benchmarks for MiniMax M2.1 and Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B
BenchmarkMiniMax M2.1Qwen3 Coder 480B A35BLeader
AIME77.9%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M2.1 measured
MATH 500 (Vals AI)89.0%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M2.1 measured
MGSM (Vals AI)87.8%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M2.1 measured
AA Math Index82.739.3MiniMax M2.1
AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run)82.7%39.3%MiniMax M2.1
LMArena Text: mathNot measured1365Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: mathematical workNot measured1367Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
Knowledge benchmarks for MiniMax M2.1 and Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B
BenchmarkMiniMax M2.1Qwen3 Coder 480B A35BLeader
MMLU Pro87.0%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M2.1 measured
LegalBench (Vals AI)75.5%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M2.1 measured
CaseLaw (Vals AI)55.8%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M2.1 measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)58.9%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M2.1 measured
TaxEval (Vals AI)66.3%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M2.1 measured
MedQA (Vals AI)91.2%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M2.1 measured
MedCode (Vals AI)34.1%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M2.1 measured
MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run)87.5%78.8%MiniMax M2.1
LMArena Text: scienceNot measured1347Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcareNot measured1347Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: legal and governmentNot measured1358Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: business and financeNot measured1343Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index50
Web design benchmarks for MiniMax M2.1 and Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B
BenchmarkMiniMax M2.1Qwen3 Coder 480B A35BLeader
Design Arena: websites12011159MiniMax M2.1
Design Arena: UI components12231113MiniMax M2.1
Design Arena: game dev11341099MiniMax M2.1
Design Arena: data viz12061084MiniMax M2.1
Design Arena: 3D1165Not measuredOnly MiniMax M2.1 measured
Design Arena: all code categories11901143MiniMax M2.1
Design Arena: SVG1132Not measuredOnly 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
General benchmarks for MiniMax M2.1 and Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B
BenchmarkMiniMax M2.1Qwen3 Coder 480B A35BLeader
MedScribe (Vals AI)80.8%Not measuredOnly MiniMax M2.1 measured
IFBench69.9%40.5%MiniMax M2.1
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)67.7%45.7%MiniMax M2.1
LMArena TextNot measured1357Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: instruction followingNot measured1355Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: creative writingNot measured1333Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: EnglishNot measured1359Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: non-EnglishNot measured1346Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: ChineseNot measured1357Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: GermanNot measured1325Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: JapaneseNot measured1311Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: KoreanNot measured1305Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: FrenchNot measured1398Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: SpanishNot measured1360Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: RussianNot measured1366Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: PolishNot measured1344Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: multi-turnNot measured1366Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: longer queriesNot measured1378Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: writing and languageNot measured1340Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
LMArena Text: entertainment and mediaNot measured1317Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B measured
Neither model has a result on the other 26 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for MiniMax M2.1 and Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B
BenchmarkMiniMax M2.1Qwen3 Coder 480B A35BLeader
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$0.0009Fits in one request
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B$0.0010Fits in one request

MiniMax M2.1 costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

MiniMax M2.1$0.019Fits in one request
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B$0.019Fits in one request

MiniMax M2.1 costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

MiniMax M2.1$0.072Exceeds the context window
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B$0.075Fits in one request

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.

Specifications of MiniMax M2.1 and Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B
SpecificationMiniMax M2.1Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B
MakerMiniMaxQwen
WeightsOpen weightsOpen weights
ReleasedDecember 23, 2025July 23, 2025
Context window205K262K
Input $/Mtok$0.30$0.30
Output $/Mtok$1.20$1.50
Coding indexNot benchmarkedNot benchmarked
Independent measurements behind it11
Cost per solved task$0.59Not computable
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is MiniMax M2.1 better than Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B for coding?

Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick MiniMax M2.1 for output tokens 1.3x cheaper ($1.20 vs $1.50 per million).

Which is cheaper, MiniMax M2.1 or Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B?

MiniMax M2.1 costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B costs $0.30 and $1.50. Cost per solved task is known for MiniMax M2.1 only.

Which has the bigger context window, MiniMax M2.1 or Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B?

Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B, with 262K tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks is the MiniMax M2.1 vs Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B comparison based on?

18 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. MiniMax M2.1's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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