MiniMax M2.5 vs Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct
Updated October 21, 2026. 11 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
Decision reading
MiniMax M2.5 and Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct are level for coding, 59.4 against 60.4 on the Vibe Coding Index, so price and context decide.
Pick MiniMax M2.5 when what matters is SWE-bench Verified or Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run), where it leads. Pick Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct when output tokens cost 3.4x less, or when the context window is larger, 262K against 205K tokens.
- Shared results
- 11
- MiniMax M2.5 only
- 56
- Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct only
- 5
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 of 9
Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results only one model has describe coverage, not superiority.
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, four public coding benchmarks
No call
Level: 59.4 against 60.4, inside 2 points.
2 and 1 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
MiniMax M2.5
MiniMax M2.5 leads, 22.8 against 9.6.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only MiniMax M2.5 has a GPQA Diamond result, 82.1%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only MiniMax M2.5 has a AIME result, 88.8%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only MiniMax M2.5 has a MMLU Pro result, 80.1%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
MiniMax M2.5
MiniMax M2.5 leads, 1222 against 1087.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct takes 262K tokens against 205K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct
MiniMax M2.5 $0.0007, Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct $0.0002 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only MiniMax M2.5 has the number, $0.62.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- MiniMax M2.5 59.4 from 2 benchmarks, Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct 60.4 from 1 benchmark.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 60.8 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- τ²-Bench Telecom: MiniMax M2.5 95.3% against Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct 34.5%, 60.8 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- MiniMax M2.5 $0.95 against Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct $0.28 per million output tokens, 3.4x apart.
- Context window
- MiniMax M2.5 takes 205K tokens, Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B 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.
| Category | MiniMax M2.5 | Bars | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 0 | ||
| Web design | 3 | 0 | ||
| General | 2 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 11 | 0 |
CodingLike-for-likeFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index20
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2.5 | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 75.8% | 60.4% | MiniMax M2.5 |
| SWE-bench Lite | Not measured | 49.7% | Only Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct measured |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | 68.3% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1386 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 79.2% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 74.2% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 14.8% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 40.3% | Only Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 34.8% | 15.2% | MiniMax M2.5 |
| Terminal-Bench | 42.7% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 618.2 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1380 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1383 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1374 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1414 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 23 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2.5 | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 22.8 | 9.6 | MiniMax M2.5 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.6 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2.5 | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 95.3% | 34.5% | MiniMax M2.5 |
| Vending-Bench 2 | -$23 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 37 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2.5 | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 82.1% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 84.8% | 51.6% | MiniMax M2.5 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 20.5% | 3.8% | MiniMax M2.5 |
| ARC-AGI | 63.7% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 4.9% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1372 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1378 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1384 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2.5 | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 88.8% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| AA Math Index | Not measured | 29.0 | Only Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 29.0% | Only Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct measured |
| ProofBench | 4.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1378 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1378 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2.5 | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 80.1% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 80.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 53.5% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 59.6% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 68.2% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 92.5% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 70.6% | Only Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1369 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1357 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1366 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1356 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2.5 | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1222 | 1087 | MiniMax M2.5 |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1172 | 1046 | MiniMax M2.5 |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1176 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1171 | 1085 | MiniMax M2.5 |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1170 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1207 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1147 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 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 M2.5 | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 71.6% | 32.7% | MiniMax M2.5 |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 73.3% | 32.7% | MiniMax M2.5 |
| CL-bench | 11.4% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| CL-bench Life | 6.3% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1359 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1353 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1331 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1380 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1338 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1393 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1361 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1171 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1233 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1363 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1353 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1359 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1334 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1364 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1366 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1345 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1329 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 25 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2.5 | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B 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
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B 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.
| Specification | MiniMax M2.5 | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | MiniMax | Qwen |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | February 12, 2026 | July 31, 2025 |
| Context window | 205K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.27 | $0.07 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.95 | $0.28 |
| Coding index | 59.4 | 60.4 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.62 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is MiniMax M2.5 better than Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct for coding?
MiniMax M2.5 and Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct are level for coding, 59.4 against 60.4 on the Vibe Coding Index, so price and context decide. Pick MiniMax M2.5 when what matters is SWE-bench Verified or Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run), where it leads. Pick Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct when output tokens cost 3.4x less, or when the context window is larger, 262K against 205K tokens.
Which is cheaper, MiniMax M2.5 or Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct?
MiniMax M2.5 costs $0.27 per million input tokens and $0.95 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct costs $0.07 and $0.28. Cost per solved task is known for MiniMax M2.5 only.
Which has the bigger context window, MiniMax M2.5 or Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct?
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct, with 262K tokens against 205K.
How many benchmarks is the MiniMax M2.5 vs Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct comparison based on?
11 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. MiniMax M2.5's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.