MiniMax M2 vs Qwen3.6 Flash
MiniMax M2 and Qwen3.6 Flash cost about the same per output token ($1.02 vs $1.125 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; no benchmark has tested both models yet.
- Coding
- No data
- Overall
- No data
- Output $/M
- $1.02
- Coding
- No data
- Overall
- No data
- Output $/M
- $1.125
MiniMax M2 or Qwen3.6 Flash: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick MiniMax M2 for output tokens 1.1x cheaper ($1.02 vs $1.125 per million).
No benchmark has tested both yet. MiniMax M2 has results on SWE-bench Verified, LMArena WebDev and LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run); Qwen3.6 Flash on ALE-Bench, Epoch Capabilities Index and GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run). Compare them on price and context instead.
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
No call
Only MiniMax M2 has a AA Intelligence Index result, 18.6.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only MiniMax M2 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1143.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Qwen3.6 Flash
Qwen3.6 Flash takes 1M tokens against 205K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3.6 Flash
MiniMax M2 $0.0008, Qwen3.6 Flash $0.0008 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only MiniMax M2 has the number, $0.702.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- MiniMax M2 not benchmarked, Qwen3.6 Flash not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- None yet: no category has been tested on both models.
- Widest single gap
- None yet: no benchmark has tested both models.
- Output price
- MiniMax M2 $1.02 against Qwen3.6 Flash $1.125 per million output tokens, 1.1x apart.
- Context window
- MiniMax M2 takes 205K tokens, Qwen3.6 Flash 1M.
Benchmark by benchmark
Every board either model has a result on, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale. Only one model is measured on each, so no row names a leader.
CodingDirectional onlySix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index9 boards measured
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2 | Qwen3.6 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 61.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1297 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 82.6% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 25.8% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| Terminal-Bench | 30.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 326.4 | Only Qwen3.6 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1371 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1373 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1306 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 30 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards measured
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2 | Qwen3.6 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 18.6 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 142.9 | Only Qwen3.6 Flash measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards measured
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2 | Qwen3.6 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 86.8% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $161 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 39 boards here | |||
ReasoningDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10 boards measured
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2 | Qwen3.6 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 77.7% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 13.7% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 83.3% | Only Qwen3.6 Flash measured |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 35.2% | Only Qwen3.6 Flash measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 12.0% | Only Qwen3.6 Flash measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 18.0% | Only Qwen3.6 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1357 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1338 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1376 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 57.8% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards measured
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2 | Qwen3.6 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | 78.3 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 78.3% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 84.4% | Only Qwen3.6 Flash measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 22.5% | Only Qwen3.6 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1351 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1368 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards measured
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2 | Qwen3.6 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 82.0% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 15.9% | Only Qwen3.6 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1348 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1367 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1349 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1336 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 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 measured
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2 | Qwen3.6 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1143 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1137 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1118 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1140 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1098 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1135 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1100 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index19 boards measured
| Benchmark | MiniMax M2 | Qwen3.6 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 72.3% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 64.3% | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| DTBench | Not measured | 77.1% | Only Qwen3.6 Flash measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 31.0% | Only Qwen3.6 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text | 1340 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1329 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1286 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1364 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1313 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1366 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1357 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1336 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1326 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1330 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1312 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1361 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1331 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1295 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1298 | Not measured | Only MiniMax M2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 27 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
Qwen3.6 Flash costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3.6 Flash costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3.6 Flash 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 | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | MiniMax | Qwen |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | October 23, 2025 | April 27, 2026 |
| Context window | 205K | 1M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.255 | $0.1875 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.02 | $1.125 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.702 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is MiniMax M2 better than Qwen3.6 Flash for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick MiniMax M2 for output tokens 1.1x cheaper ($1.02 vs $1.125 per million).
Which is cheaper, MiniMax M2 or Qwen3.6 Flash?
MiniMax M2 costs $0.255 per million input tokens and $1.02 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Flash costs $0.1875 and $1.125. Cost per solved task is known for MiniMax M2 only.
Which has the bigger context window, MiniMax M2 or Qwen3.6 Flash?
Qwen3.6 Flash, with 1M tokens against 205K.
Has any benchmark tested both MiniMax M2 and Qwen3.6 Flash?
No benchmark has tested both yet. MiniMax M2 has results on SWE-bench Verified, LMArena WebDev and LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run); Qwen3.6 Flash on ALE-Bench, Epoch Capabilities Index and GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run). Compare them on price and context instead. Data as of October 22, 2026.