MiniMax M2.1 vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

MiniMax M2.1 leads Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 20.9 to 9.9, and MiniMax M2.1 costs 1.6x less per output token ($1.20 vs $1.90 per million). Updated October 23, 2026; 11 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace MiniMax M2.1 Replace Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

MiniMax M2.1MiniMax

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

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructQwen

Coding: No data
Overall: No data
Output $/M: $1.90

vs boards won of 11 shared

MiniMax M2.1 or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct: 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 1.6x cheaper ($1.20 vs $1.90 per million) and work measured by AA Math Index or AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run), where it leads.

Model AMiniMax M2.1MiniMaxNot benchmarked1 independent benchmark$0.59 per solved task Model BQwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructQwenNot benchmarkedNo coding benchmarkNo cost per solved task

112338

Shared results: 11
MiniMax M2.1 only: 23
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct only: 38
Like-for-like categories: 7 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 9.9.
Same board, both measured
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
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct takes 262K tokens against 205K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
MiniMax M2.1
MiniMax M2.1 $0.0009, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct $0.0012 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: MiniMax M2.1 not benchmarked, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct not benchmarked.
Widest category: Agentic work, 31.3 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
Widest single gap: τ²-Bench Telecom: MiniMax M2.1 85.4% against Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 54.1%, 31.3 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price: MiniMax M2.1 $1.20 against Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct $1.90 per million output tokens, 1.6x apart.
Context window: MiniMax M2.1 takes 205K tokens, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 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
Category	MiniMax M2.1	Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Coding	2	0
Intelligence	1	0
Agentic work	1	0
Reasoning	2	0
Math	0	2
Knowledge	1	0
General	2	0
All shared boards	9	2

CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index20

Coding benchmarks for MiniMax M2.1 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Benchmark	MiniMax M2.1	Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct	Leader
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)	81.8%	Not measured	Only MiniMax M2.1 measured
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)	74.8%	Not measured	Only MiniMax M2.1 measured
LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run)	81.0%	64.6%	MiniMax M2.1
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)	28.8%	11.4%	MiniMax M2.1
Terminal-Bench	36.6%	Not measured	Only MiniMax M2.1 measured
ALE-Bench	623.8	Not measured	Only MiniMax M2.1 measured
LMArena Text: coding	Not measured	1438	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: software and IT	Not measured	1442	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
Neither model has a result on the other 35 boards here

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

Intelligence benchmarks for MiniMax M2.1 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Benchmark	MiniMax M2.1	Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct	Leader
AA Intelligence Index	20.9	9.9	MiniMax 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 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Benchmark	MiniMax M2.1	Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct	Leader
τ²-Bench Telecom	85.4%	54.1%	MiniMax M2.1
Neither model has a result on the other 41 boards here

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

Reasoning benchmarks for MiniMax M2.1 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Benchmark	MiniMax M2.1	Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct	Leader
GPQA Diamond	78.5%	Not measured	Only MiniMax M2.1 measured
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)	83.0%	77.2%	MiniMax M2.1
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)	23.2%	11.9%	MiniMax M2.1
LMArena Text: hard prompts	Not measured	1428	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: expert	Not measured	1442	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English	Not measured	1439	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Vision: diagrams	Not measured	1255	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Vision: homework	Not measured	1277	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here

MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02

Math benchmarks for MiniMax M2.1 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Benchmark	MiniMax M2.1	Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct	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	88.3	Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run)	82.7%	88.3%	Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
LMArena Text: math	Not measured	1425	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: mathematical work	Not measured	1419	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here

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

Knowledge benchmarks for MiniMax M2.1 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Benchmark	MiniMax M2.1	Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct	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%	Not measured	Only MiniMax M2.1 measured
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%	83.6%	MiniMax M2.1
LMArena Text: science	Not measured	1445	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare	Not measured	1431	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: legal and government	Not measured	1438	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: business and finance	Not measured	1433	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here

Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared

Web design benchmarks for MiniMax M2.1 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Benchmark	MiniMax M2.1	Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct	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	1207	Not measured	Only MiniMax M2.1 measured
Design Arena: 3D	1166	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

General benchmarks for MiniMax M2.1 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Benchmark	MiniMax M2.1	Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct	Leader
MedScribe (Vals AI)	80.8%	Not measured	Only MiniMax M2.1 measured
IFBench	69.9%	56.5%	MiniMax M2.1
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)	67.7%	63.7%	MiniMax M2.1
LMArena Text	Not measured	1420	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: instruction following	Not measured	1406	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: creative writing	Not measured	1366	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Vision	Not measured	1247	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: English	Not measured	1429	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: non-English	Not measured	1405	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: Chinese	Not measured	1462	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: German	Not measured	1424	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: Japanese	Not measured	1385	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: Korean	Not measured	1394	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: French	Not measured	1452	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: Spanish	Not measured	1428	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: Russian	Not measured	1408	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: Polish	Not measured	1419	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: multi-turn	Not measured	1428	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: longer queries	Not measured	1420	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: writing and language	Not measured	1393	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Text: entertainment and media	Not measured	1368	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Vision: English	Not measured	1256	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Vision: Chinese	Not measured	1283	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Vision: reading text	Not measured	1253	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Vision: humor	Not measured	1209	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Vision: captioning	Not measured	1281	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Vision: recognizing things	Not measured	1249	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured
LMArena Vision: creative writing	Not measured	1220	Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 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 MiniMax M2.1 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Benchmark	MiniMax M2.1	Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct	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

MiniMax M2.1$0.0009Fits in one request

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct$0.0012Fits in one request

MiniMax M2.1 costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

MiniMax M2.1$0.019Fits in one request

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct$0.016Fits in one request

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

MiniMax M2.1$0.072Exceeds the context window

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct$0.061Fits in one request

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 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 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Specification	MiniMax M2.1	Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Maker	MiniMax	Qwen
Weights	Open weights	Open weights
Released	December 23, 2025	September 23, 2025
Context window	205K	262K
Input $/Mtok	$0.30	$0.21
Output $/Mtok	$1.20	$1.90
Coding index	Not benchmarked	Not benchmarked
Independent measurements behind it	1	0
Cost per solved task	$0.59	Not computable
Source	OpenRouter listing	OpenRouter listing

Questions

Is MiniMax M2.1 better than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct for coding?

Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick MiniMax M2.1 for output tokens 1.6x cheaper ($1.20 vs $1.90 per million) and work measured by AA Math Index or AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run), where it leads.

Which is cheaper, MiniMax M2.1 or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

MiniMax M2.1 costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct costs $0.21 and $1.90. Cost per solved task is known for MiniMax M2.1 only.

Which has the bigger context window, MiniMax M2.1 or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct, with 262K tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks is the MiniMax M2.1 vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct comparison based on?

11 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 23, 2026. MiniMax M2.1's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

MiniMax M2.1 or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct: which to pick

Which one for your work

Coding

Intelligence

Reasoning

Math

Knowledge

Web design

Long documents

Everyday cost

Cost per solved task